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The man behind the scheme, who devised a system to distribute undetectable performance-enhancing drugs to professional athletes such as baseball icons Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi and track and field star Jones years back, has passed away. His age was 75.

Official Inquiry and Convictions

The federal government's investigation into another company set up by him, Balco, resulted in the criminal findings of Jones, elite sprint cyclist Thomas, and ex-pro football defender Dana Stubblefield, in addition to trainers, suppliers, chemists, attorneys, and coaches.

Public Statements and Prison Time

The Balco founder, who served a third of a year in a penitentiary for steroid distribution, spoke openly about his high-profile athletes. He appeared on broadcast media to assert he had witnessed decorated Olympian Marion Jones self-administer with growth hormones, but always refrained from incriminating Barry Bonds, the San Francisco Giants slugger.

Sport's Official Review

This probe resulted in the publication titled Game of Shadows. Just days following the book's publication in that year, MLB commissioner Bud Selig appointed former senate majority leader George Mitchell to investigate steroids.

Conte stated he distributed steroids referred to as “the cream” and “the clear” and coached on their application to dozens of elite athletes, including Giambi, a star player, according to the report.

“The illegal use of banned drugs is a significant danger to the honesty of the competition,” the Mitchell report concluded. “Prevalent consumption by competitors of these compounds puts at a disadvantage the honest athletes who decline to take them and creates doubts about the accuracy of baseball records.”

Mitchell indicated the problems were not sudden. Mitchell claimed all parties in baseball in the prior two decades – covering leaders, management, the representative body and players – were partly accountable for what he called the doping period.

Case Inception

The federal investigation into the laboratory was initiated by a revenue officer searching the corporate garbage. Conte eventually confessed to a couple of the 42 charges he faced in that year prior to court proceedings. Six of the defendants sentenced were convicted for misleading grand jurors.

Further Legal Actions

The athlete's coach Anderson, pleaded guilty to steroid distribution charges stemming from his Balco connections. He received a sentence to a quarter year in jail and three months of house arrest.

The Slugger's Case

Bonds was charged with deceiving a grand jury about receiving banned substances and went on trial in that year. The case was dismissed the case down the line when the government decided not to appeal an reversed conviction to the supreme court.

A multiple MVP winner and frequent All-Star, he ended his career after the 2007 season with a record home run tally, exceeding the milestone of Aaron's total that Hank Aaron achieved from his career. Bonds denied intentionally taking banned substances but has not been voted to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

After Incarceration

The former convict stated in an interview in a 2010 interview that “competitors do cheat to win, but the federal representatives engage in misconduct as well.” He also questioned whether the outcomes in these trials justified the effort.

Following his prison term, Conte returned to work in 2007 by reviving a nutritional supplements business he had launched two decades earlier called SNAC System. He set up shop in the very same place that once housed his former lab in the California city.

Defiant Stance

He continued to justify about his major involvement in distributing custom PEDs to top sports stars. He maintained he simply helped “balance the odds” in a arena full of cheaters.

Outside Views

To a WADA member, a then-member of the World Anti-Doping Agency, he may as well have been pushing illegal narcotics. “You are talking about unlawful substance distribution. You are talking about drug consumption in breach of national statutes,” the doctor remarked in the past. “It's not a good deed and it's not altruistic. It's illegal sales.”