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Victor Conte, who masterminded a system to provide hard-to-detect performance-enhancing drugs to top competitors such as baseball greats Giambi and Bonds and track and field star Marion Jones decades ago, has passed away. He was 75.

Federal Investigation and Criminal Cases

An official inquiry regarding an additional venture set up by him, Balco, culminated in the criminal findings of Marion Jones, elite sprint cyclist Thomas, and ex-pro football defender Dana Stubblefield, as well as various support personnel and professionals.

Conte's Admissions and Prison Time

He, who completed four months in a penitentiary for illegal drug sales, spoke openly about his famous former clients. He went on television to assert he had witnessed three-time Olympic medalist Jones inject herself with human growth hormones, but consistently avoided pointing the finger at Barry Bonds, the Giants power hitter.

Sport's Official Review

This probe inspired the publication Game of Shadows. Just days following the release of the book in the mid-2000s, baseball Commissioner Selig appointed political figure Mitchell to examine doping in baseball.

He revealed he provided steroids referred to as certain undetectable drugs and guided their use to dozens of top performers, such as Giambi, a multiple-time All-Star, the Mitchell report said.

Employing performance-enhancing substances poses a serious threat to the integrity of the sport,” the Mitchell report concluded. “Broad usage by competitors of such substances harms the honest athletes who avoid them and creates doubts about the legitimacy of sporting achievements.”

Mitchell indicated the issues were not sudden. The report emphasized all parties in the sport in the previous twenty years – covering leaders, management, the players’ association and athletes themselves – shared some responsibility for what he labeled the doping period.

How It Began

The government's case into the laboratory started when a IRS investigator examining the corporate garbage. Conte ultimately admitted guilt to a pair of the multiple accusations filed against him in the mid-2000s before a trial. Half a dozen of the defendants sentenced were caught lying to federal investigators.

Associated Convictions

His fitness instructor Anderson, confessed to illegal substance sales linked to his ties to the lab. He received a sentence to three months in jail and three months of home confinement.

His Court Proceedings

The baseball legend was indicted for lying to a grand jury about using PEDs and stood trial in 2011. The government abandoned his case down the line when the prosecutors opted not to contest an overturned ruling to the federal apex court.

A multiple MVP winner and frequent All-Star, he retired after the that season with 762 home runs, breaking the milestone of Aaron's total that Aaron set from his career. Bonds denied intentionally taking PEDs but has never been elected to the Hall of Fame.

Conte's Post-Prison Life

He told the Associated Press in a 2010 interview that “competitors do cheat to win, but the federal representatives cheat to win, too.” He wondered whether the results in such legal cases justified the effort.

After serving his sentence, Conte resumed operations in 2007 by resuscitating a nutritional supplements business he had founded previously called SNAC System. He operated in the identical location that previously contained his former lab in Burlingame, California.

Continued Justification

He stayed unrepentant about his key part in doling out designer steroids to top sports stars. He argued he simply helped “level the playing field” in a sports environment already rife with doping athletes.

Critical Perspectives

To a WADA member, a then-member of the global anti-doping body, he could be compared to distributing illegal narcotics. “This involves blatant drug dealing. This refers to substance use in defiance of legal codes,” he stated in 2007. “It's not a good deed and this is not some do-gooding. This is drug dealing.”