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The orchestrator of the plot, who devised a plan to distribute hard-to-detect banned substances to top competitors featuring baseball greats Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi and sprinting gold medalist Marion Jones in the past, has passed away. His age was 75.

Federal Investigation and Criminal Cases

An official probe of another company Conte founded, Balco, culminated in the convictions of Marion Jones, competitive biker Tammy Thomas, and ex-pro football defender Stubblefield, along with coaches, distributors, a trainer, a chemist and a lawyer.

Conte's Admissions and Prison Time

The Balco founder, who served four months in a federal facility for dealing steroids, talked publicly about his high-profile athletes. He was featured on TV to assert he had seen triple Olympic champion Marion Jones inject herself with human growth hormones, but always refrained from incriminating Bonds, the San Francisco Giants slugger.

Baseball's Investigation

This probe resulted in the book titled Game of Shadows. Shortly after the publication date in 2006, the sport's chief Bud Selig brought on ex-senator George Mitchell to examine doping in baseball.

Conte stated he distributed steroids called “the cream” and “the clear” and coached on their use to many elite athletes, like Jason Giambi, a multiple-time All-Star, the Mitchell report said.

Using banned drugs poses a serious threat to the integrity of the sport,” the report stated. “Prevalent consumption by players of such substances puts at a disadvantage the clean players who refuse to use them and creates doubts about the accuracy of baseball records.”

The report noted the challenges didn’t develop overnight. He said everyone involved in the sport in the preceding decades – covering leaders, team executives, the representative body and athletes themselves – were partly accountable for what he labeled the doping period.

How It Began

The federal investigation into the company began with a tax agent searching the company’s trash. The defendant eventually confessed to a couple of the numerous counts against him in that year prior to court proceedings. Half a dozen of the individuals found guilty were convicted for misleading federal investigators.

Associated Convictions

Bonds’ personal trainer Greg Anderson, confessed to illegal substance sales linked to his involvement with Balco. He received a sentence to three months in prison and the same duration of home confinement.

The Slugger's Case

The home run king was charged with providing false statements to a grand jury about using PEDs and stood trial in the early 2010s. The government abandoned the case after several years when the government decided not to challenge an overturned obstruction of justice conviction to the highest court.

A multiple MVP winner and star performer, he ended his career after the that season with 762 homers, surpassing the mark of 755 that Aaron set from the 1950s to 1970s. The athlete refuted knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs but has not been voted to the Hall of Fame.

Later Years

Conte stated in an interview in a past conversation that “sportspeople break rules to win, but the government agents and prosecutors also bend the rules.” He also questioned whether the outcomes in such proceedings merited the work.

Post-incarceration, he returned to work in that year by reviving a nutritional supplements business he had founded years before called Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning or SNAC System. He set up shop in the very same place that previously contained Balco in Burlingame, California.

Unapologetic Views

The controversial figure remained defiant about his central role in providing tailored drugs to elite athletes. He maintained he simply helped “level the playing field” in a arena full of cheaters.

Outside Views

To a WADA member, a former participant of the World Anti-Doping Agency, he could be compared to selling illegal narcotics. “You are talking about unlawful substance distribution. It's about using drugs in violation of federal law,” Wadler said in the past. “This is not philanthropy and this is not some do-gooding. It's trafficking.”