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The man behind the scheme, who engineered a plan to provide stealthy performance-enhancing drugs to professional athletes including baseball icons Giambi and Bonds and Olympic track champion Marion Jones years back, has passed away. He reached 75 years.

Federal Investigation and Convictions

A national investigation into an additional venture set up by him, Balco, resulted in the criminal findings of Jones, elite sprint cyclist Tammy Thomas, and ex-pro football defender Stubblefield, along with coaches, distributors, a trainer, a chemist and a lawyer.

Public Statements and Legal Consequences

Conte, who served several months in a penitentiary for illegal drug sales, spoke openly about his high-profile athletes. He went on television to assert he had seen decorated Olympian Jones use a syringe with HGH, but never directly incriminating Barry Bonds, the Giants power hitter.

Sport's Official Review

This probe led to the volume titled Game of Shadows. Shortly after the publication date in the mid-2000s, baseball Commissioner Bud Selig brought on ex-senator George Mitchell to look into PED use.

He admitted he distributed steroids known as two specific substances and advised on their usage to dozens of top performers, such as Giambi, a star player, according to the report.

“The illegal use of PEDs is a significant danger to the honesty of the game,” the report stated. “Widespread use by players of these drugs puts at a disadvantage the those who refuse to cheat who avoid them and creates doubts about the validity of baseball records.”

Mitchell indicated the issues took time to emerge. He said each participant in baseball in the previous twenty years – including commissioners, club officials, the players’ association and players – shared some responsibility for what he termed the PED epoch.

Investigation Origins

The official probe into the laboratory began with a IRS investigator examining the corporate garbage. Conte ended up pleading guilty to a couple of the multiple accusations he faced in the mid-2000s prior to court proceedings. Six of the defendants sentenced were ensnared for lying to the court.

Related Cases

His fitness instructor Anderson, pleaded guilty to illegal substance sales stemming from his involvement with Balco. Anderson was sentenced to 90 days in incarceration and an equal period of restricted movement.

His Court Proceedings

Bonds was accused of lying to a grand jury about receiving PEDs and went on trial in the early 2010s. The government abandoned the charges down the line when the prosecutors opted not to contest an reversed conviction to the highest court.

A seven-time National League MVP and frequent All-Star, he ended his career after the 2007 campaign with 762 home runs, breaking the mark of 755 that Hank Aaron established from 1954-76. Bonds denied knowingly using banned substances but has never been elected to the sport's hall of honor.

After Incarceration

He remarked to the press in a 2010 interview that “sportspeople break rules to triumph, but the government agents and prosecutors engage in misconduct as well.” He also questioned whether the results in such legal cases were worth the resources.

Following his prison term, Conte got back in business in 2007 by resuscitating a health products venture he had started previously called Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning or SNAC System. He set up shop in the same building that previously contained his former lab in Burlingame.

Defiant Stance

He stayed unrepentant about his central role in providing custom PEDs to top sports stars. He argued he simply helped “even the competition” in a sports environment full of cheaters.

Critical Perspectives

To a WADA member, a then-member of the World Anti-Doping Agency, he was essentially distributing illegal narcotics. “You are talking about totally illegal drug trafficking. You are talking about using drugs in defiance of legal codes,” the doctor remarked in the past. “It's not a good deed and this is not some do-gooding. It's illegal sales.”