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The man behind the scheme, who engineered a plan to distribute hard-to-detect performance-enhancing drugs to elite sports stars such as baseball icons Giambi and Bonds and track and field star Jones years back, is deceased. His age was 75.

Federal Investigation and Criminal Cases

The federal government's inquiry regarding another company Conte founded, Balco, culminated in the convictions of Marion Jones, elite sprint cyclist Thomas, and retired NFL player Stubblefield, along with coaches, distributors, a trainer, a chemist and a lawyer.

Conte's Admissions and Prison Time

The Balco founder, who completed four months in a penitentiary for dealing steroids, talked publicly about his well-known clients. He appeared on TV to state he had observed triple Olympic champion Jones inject herself with human growth hormones, but consistently avoided implicating Bonds, the baseball star.

Baseball's Investigation

The investigation led to the book titled Game of Shadows. Just days following the release of the book in 2006, the sport's chief Selig appointed political figure Mitchell to investigate steroids.

Conte stated he sold steroids called two specific substances and advised on their use to numerous elite athletes, including Giambi, a five-time major league All-Star, the Mitchell report said.

“The illegal use of performance-enhancing substances is a significant danger to the fairness of the competition,” the Mitchell report concluded. “Widespread use by athletes of these drugs puts at a disadvantage the clean players who avoid them and creates doubts about the legitimacy of historical stats.”

Mitchell indicated the challenges didn’t develop overnight. Mitchell claimed everyone involved in professional baseball in the previous twenty years – including commissioners, management, the union and players – shared some responsibility for what he termed the doping period.

Investigation Origins

The government's case into the company was initiated by a revenue officer digging through the business refuse. Conte ultimately admitted guilt to two of the 42 charges he faced in the mid-2000s prior to court proceedings. Six of the defendants sentenced were convicted for lying to grand jurors.

Associated Convictions

His fitness instructor Greg Anderson, pleaded guilty to steroid distribution charges linked to his ties to the lab. Anderson was sentenced to 90 days in prison and the same duration of house arrest.

Bonds' Legal Battles

Bonds was accused of deceiving a grand jury about obtaining performance-enhancing drugs and stood trial in that year. The government abandoned his case four years later when the government decided not to contest an overturned ruling to the highest court.

A multiple MVP winner and frequent All-Star, Bonds retired after the 2007 campaign with 762 home runs, breaking the milestone of 755 that Aaron achieved from the 1950s to 1970s. Bonds denied knowingly using banned substances but has never been elected to the Hall of Fame.

After Incarceration

The former convict stated in an interview in a past conversation that “sportspeople break rules to triumph, but the officials and lawyers cheat to win, too.” He wondered whether the results in these trials justified the effort.

Following his prison term, Conte resumed operations in the late 2000s by reviving a nutritional supplements business he had started two decades earlier called Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning or SNAC System. He operated in the identical location that previously contained Balco in Burlingame.

Continued Justification

He stayed unrepentant about his major involvement in doling out tailored drugs to professional competitors. He argued he simply helped “level the playing field” in a arena teeming with cheaters.

Critical Perspectives

To Dr Gary Wadler, a at the time a member of the WADA, Conte may as well have been pushing hard drugs. “It concerns blatant drug dealing. This refers to substance use in violation of federal law,” Wadler said in 2007. “It's not a good deed and this is not some do-gooding. It's trafficking.”