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The man behind the scheme, who masterminded a operation to provide stealthy banned substances to elite sports stars including baseball icons Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi and Olympic track champion Jones decades ago, has passed away. His age was 75.

Government Probe and Convictions

The federal government's probe of another company established by Conte, the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (Balco), resulted in the convictions of Marion Jones, elite sprint cyclist Thomas, and former NFL defensive lineman Dana Stubblefield, as well as trainers, suppliers, chemists, attorneys, and coaches.

Public Statements and Prison Time

The Balco founder, who served a third of a year in a federal facility for dealing steroids, talked publicly about his famous former clients. He appeared on broadcast media to claim he had seen triple Olympic champion Marion Jones use a syringe with human growth hormones, but consistently avoided implicating Bonds, the Giants power hitter.

Baseball's Investigation

This probe led to the book titled Game of Shadows. Shortly after the publication date in the mid-2000s, MLB commissioner Bud Selig hired political figure Mitchell to examine doping in baseball.

Conte stated he distributed steroids known as two specific substances and advised on their application to many professional sportspeople, such as Jason Giambi, a five-time major league All-Star, the Mitchell report said.

“The illegal use of PEDs represents a major risk to the integrity of the competition,” the Mitchell report concluded. “Prevalent consumption by players of these drugs unfairly disadvantages the honest athletes who refuse to use them and leads to skepticism about the legitimacy of sporting achievements.”

The report noted the challenges didn’t develop overnight. The report emphasized everyone involved in baseball in the previous twenty years – encompassing leaders, club officials, the representative body and athletes themselves – were partly accountable for what he termed the doping period.

Case Inception

The federal investigation into the company began with a revenue officer digging through the business refuse. He ultimately admitted guilt to two of the numerous counts against him in 2005 before a trial. Several of the defendants sentenced were ensnared for deceiving federal investigators.

Related Cases

His fitness instructor Greg Anderson, admitted guilt to drug dealing counts stemming from his involvement with Balco. He received a sentence to 90 days in prison and three months of house arrest.

Bonds' Legal Battles

Bonds was charged with lying to a investigative body about receiving banned substances and faced a trial in that year. Prosecutors dropped the case after several years when the authorities chose not to challenge an overturned obstruction of justice conviction to the highest court.

A seven-time National League MVP and 14-time All-Star outfielder, he concluded his playing days after the 2007 campaign with a record home run tally, surpassing the record of 755 that Hank Aaron achieved from his career. Bonds denied intentionally taking performance-enhancing drugs but has failed to gain entry to the sport's hall of honor.

After Incarceration

Conte told the Associated Press in a past conversation that “competitors do cheat to win, but the federal representatives also bend the rules.” He also questioned whether the results in these trials justified the effort.

After serving his sentence, Conte got back in business in 2007 by resuscitating a nutritional supplements business he had launched two decades earlier called Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning or SNAC System. He set up shop in the same building that once housed the original company in Burlingame.

Continued Justification

He stayed unrepentant about his central role in providing tailored drugs to professional competitors. He maintained he simply helped “even the competition” in a sports environment full of rule-breakers.

Critical Perspectives

To Dr Gary Wadler, a former participant of the World Anti-Doping Agency, Conte may as well have been pushing illegal narcotics. “This involves totally illegal drug trafficking. It's about using drugs in breach of national statutes,” he stated in the past. “This isn't charity and it's not altruistic. It's trafficking.”