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The man behind the scheme, who devised a system to distribute undetectable performance-enhancing drugs to top competitors including MLB legends Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi and sprinting gold medalist Jones in the past, has died. His age was 75.

Federal Investigation and Criminal Cases

An official probe of a separate firm set up by him, the Bay Area lab, resulted in the guilty verdicts of Jones, top track cyclist Thomas, and ex-pro football defender Stubblefield, along with coaches, distributors, a trainer, a chemist and a lawyer.

Public Statements and Prison Time

Conte, who served four months in a federal facility for illegal drug sales, discussed frankly about his high-profile athletes. He went on broadcast media to assert he had seen decorated Olympian Jones inject herself with growth hormones, but never directly incriminating Barry Bonds, the baseball star.

The Mitchell Report

The investigation led to the volume Game of Shadows. Just days following the release of the book in the mid-2000s, the sport's chief Selig appointed political figure George Mitchell to investigate steroids.

He admitted he provided steroids known as certain undetectable drugs and guided their use to dozens of elite athletes, like Giambi, a star player, the Mitchell report said.

Using performance-enhancing substances is a significant danger to the honesty of the game,” the findings emphasized. “Prevalent consumption by competitors of these drugs puts at a disadvantage the those who refuse to cheat who decline to take them and leads to skepticism about the accuracy of sporting achievements.”

Mitchell indicated the challenges were not sudden. Mitchell claimed all parties in professional baseball in the prior two decades – including commissioners, team executives, the players’ association and athletes themselves – were partly accountable for what he termed the doping period.

Case Inception

The government's case into Balco was initiated by a tax agent searching the corporate garbage. The defendant eventually confessed to a pair of the multiple accusations filed against him in 2005 prior to court proceedings. Several of the defendants sentenced were ensnared for deceiving grand jurors.

Associated Convictions

His fitness instructor Anderson, confessed to illegal substance sales stemming from his Balco connections. The court gave him to 90 days in incarceration and three months of restricted movement.

His Court Proceedings

The home run king was charged with deceiving a grand jury about receiving performance-enhancing drugs and stood trial in that year. The government abandoned the charges after several years when the authorities chose not to appeal an overturned obstruction of justice conviction to the supreme court.

A multiple MVP winner and star performer, he ended his career after the 2007 campaign with 762 homers, exceeding the record of 755 that Hank Aaron achieved from 1954-76. Bonds denied intentionally taking performance-enhancing drugs but has not been voted 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 officials and lawyers engage in misconduct as well.” He doubted whether the outcomes in such proceedings merited the work.

Following his prison term, he resumed operations in that year by resuscitating a supplements company he had founded years before called Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning or SNAC System. He set up shop in the identical location that was home to his former lab in Burlingame, California.

Unapologetic Views

Conte continued to justify about his central role in distributing custom PEDs to professional competitors. He maintained he simply helped “balance the odds” in a sports environment full of rule-breakers.

Outside Views

To a WADA member, a at the time a member of the global anti-doping body, he was essentially pushing cocaine or heroin. “This involves unlawful substance distribution. This refers to drug consumption in violation of federal law,” Wadler said in the past. “This isn't charity and it's not altruistic. It's illegal sales.”