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The man behind the scheme, who devised a plan to supply hard-to-detect performance-enhancing drugs to top competitors including MLB legends Giambi and Bonds and sprinting gold medalist Marion Jones decades ago, has died. He reached 75 years.

Government Probe and Convictions

A national inquiry regarding an additional venture Conte founded, Balco, led to the convictions of Jones, elite sprint cyclist Tammy Thomas, and former NFL defensive lineman Stubblefield, in addition to trainers, suppliers, chemists, attorneys, and coaches.

Public Statements and Prison Time

He, who spent several months in a penitentiary for dealing steroids, talked publicly about his high-profile athletes. He went on TV to state he had observed decorated Olympian Marion Jones self-administer with growth hormones, but never directly incriminating Barry Bonds, the San Francisco Giants slugger.

The Mitchell Report

The investigation inspired the volume titled Game of Shadows. Just days following the book's publication in that year, the sport's chief Bud Selig appointed former senate majority leader George Mitchell to look into PED use.

He admitted he provided steroids called two specific substances and advised on their usage to dozens of elite athletes, like Giambi, a star player, according to the report.

Using performance-enhancing substances is a significant danger to the fairness of the game,” the report stated. “Widespread use by players of these compounds harms the clean players who refuse to use them and raises questions about the validity of sporting achievements.”

Mitchell indicated the problems took time to emerge. The report emphasized all parties in baseball in the prior two decades – covering leaders, management, the union and athletes themselves – shared some responsibility for what he called the doping period.

Investigation Origins

The government's case into the company began with a tax agent digging through the business refuse. The defendant eventually confessed to a couple of the numerous counts against him in 2005 prior to court proceedings. Several of the 11 convicted people were ensnared for misleading grand jurors.

Associated Convictions

His fitness instructor Anderson, admitted guilt to drug dealing counts linked to his Balco connections. The court gave him to a quarter year in incarceration and three months of restricted movement.

His Court Proceedings

The baseball legend was indicted for deceiving a grand jury about receiving banned substances and went on trial in that year. The government abandoned the case after several years when the prosecutors opted not to challenge an overturned obstruction of justice conviction to the supreme court.

A decorated player and 14-time All-Star outfielder, Bonds retired after the 2007 season with a record home run tally, exceeding the mark of 755 that Aaron set from 1954-76. The athlete refuted intentionally taking banned substances but has failed to gain entry to the Hall of Fame.

After Incarceration

Conte remarked to the press in a 2010 discussion that “competitors do cheat to win, but the government agents and prosecutors cheat to win, too.” He wondered whether the conclusions in such legal cases merited the work.

After serving his sentence, Conte returned to work in that year by reviving a health products venture he had launched years before called Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning or SNAC System. He located it in the same building that was home to his former lab in Burlingame.

Defiant Stance

The controversial figure stayed unrepentant about his major involvement in doling out designer steroids to professional competitors. He maintained he simply helped “level the playing field” in a world already rife with cheaters.

Outside Views

To Dr Gary Wadler, a then-member of the World Anti-Doping Agency, Conte was essentially distributing illegal narcotics. “It concerns blatant drug dealing. This refers to using drugs in violation of federal law,” Wadler said in 2007. “It's not a good deed and it's not altruistic. This is drug dealing.”