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Victor Conte, who masterminded a system to distribute hard-to-detect performance-enhancing drugs to professional athletes such as MLB legends Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi and track and field star Jones decades ago, has died. His age was 75.

Official Inquiry and Criminal Cases

An official inquiry regarding an additional venture Conte founded, the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (Balco), led to the guilty verdicts of Jones, competitive biker Thomas, and former NFL defensive lineman Stubblefield, in addition to coaches, distributors, a trainer, a chemist and a lawyer.

Public Statements and Sentencing

He, who served a third of a year in a penitentiary for dealing steroids, spoke openly about his high-profile athletes. He was featured on television to claim he had observed decorated Olympian Jones inject herself with growth hormones, but consistently avoided implicating Barry Bonds, the San Francisco Giants slugger.

Sport's Official Review

The federal case led to the publication titled Game of Shadows. Shortly after the book's publication in that year, MLB commissioner Bud Selig brought on former senate majority leader George Mitchell to investigate steroids.

He admitted he distributed steroids referred to as two specific substances and advised on their usage to numerous elite athletes, such as Giambi, a multiple-time All-Star, according to the report.

“The illegal use of performance-enhancing substances represents a major risk to the honesty of the game,” the report stated. “Prevalent consumption by competitors of such substances puts at a disadvantage the those who refuse to cheat who avoid them and raises questions about the validity of sporting achievements.”

The report noted the problems didn’t develop overnight. Mitchell claimed everyone involved in the sport in the preceding decades – including commissioners, club officials, the union and athletes themselves – were partly accountable for what he termed the PED epoch.

How It Began

The official probe into the company started when a tax agent digging through the corporate garbage. He ended up pleading guilty to two of the 42 charges filed against him in the mid-2000s before a trial. Half a dozen of the defendants sentenced were ensnared for misleading federal investigators.

Further Legal Actions

The athlete's coach Anderson, admitted guilt to steroid distribution charges stemming from his involvement with Balco. He received a sentence to three months in incarceration and three months of restricted movement.

Bonds' Legal Battles

The baseball legend was charged with lying to a investigative body about using performance-enhancing drugs and stood trial in 2011. The government abandoned the case down the line when the authorities chose not to contest an overturned obstruction of justice conviction to the supreme court.

A multiple MVP winner and 14-time All-Star outfielder, he concluded his playing days after the 2007 season with 762 home runs, breaking the milestone of 755 that Aaron set from 1954-76. Bonds denied consciously consuming performance-enhancing drugs but has not been voted to the sport's hall of honor.

After Incarceration

Conte remarked to the press in a past conversation that “yes, athletes cheat to succeed, but the government agents and prosecutors also bend the rules.” He also questioned whether the outcomes in such proceedings merited the work.

After serving his sentence, Conte resumed operations in 2007 by resuscitating a supplements company he had founded years before called his supplements brand. He set up shop in the very same place that was home to the original company in Burlingame.

Unapologetic Views

Conte stayed unrepentant about his central role in providing designer steroids to top sports stars. He argued he simply helped “level the playing field” in a world already rife with cheaters.

Outside Views

To an expert, a then-member of the World Anti-Doping Agency, Conte could be compared to pushing hard drugs. “It concerns unlawful substance distribution. You are talking about drug consumption in violation of federal law,” he stated in 2007. “It's not a good deed and it's not altruistic. It's trafficking.”