🔗 Share this article The Balco mastermind, Central Player in Notorious Sports Doping Controversy, Dies at 75. Victor Conte, who engineered a plan to distribute hard-to-detect performance-enhancing drugs to professional athletes such as baseball icons Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi and Olympic track champion Marion Jones decades ago, has passed away. His age was 75. Government Probe and Legal Outcomes The federal government's investigation into a separate firm set up by him, the Bay Area lab, led to the guilty verdicts of Jones, elite sprint cyclist Tammy Thomas, and former NFL defensive lineman Dana Stubblefield, as well as trainers, suppliers, chemists, attorneys, and coaches. Conte's Admissions and Legal Consequences He, who completed several months in federal prison for illegal drug sales, spoke openly about his high-profile athletes. He was featured on TV to claim he had seen decorated Olympian Jones inject herself with growth hormones, but never directly pointing the finger at Bonds, the Giants power hitter. Baseball's Investigation The federal case resulted in the publication titled Game of Shadows. Just days following the publication date in that year, the sport's chief Bud Selig hired former senate majority leader George Mitchell to investigate steroids. He admitted he distributed steroids called “the cream” and “the clear” and coached on their application to many top performers, such as Jason Giambi, a star player, the Mitchell report said. Employing PEDs is a significant danger to the fairness of the game,” the findings emphasized. “Widespread use by athletes of these compounds unfairly disadvantages the those who refuse to cheat who refuse to use them and leads to skepticism about the accuracy of baseball records.” Mitchell indicated the problems were not sudden. The report emphasized everyone involved in professional baseball in the prior two decades – including commissioners, team executives, the players’ association and athletes themselves – bore partial blame for what he termed the PED epoch. Case Inception The official probe into Balco was initiated by a tax agent digging through the corporate garbage. He ultimately admitted guilt to a pair of the multiple accusations filed against him in the mid-2000s prior to court proceedings. Half a dozen of the 11 convicted people were convicted for lying to federal investigators. Further Legal Actions The athlete's coach Greg Anderson, admitted guilt to drug dealing counts arising from his ties to the lab. The court gave him to 90 days in jail and an equal period of restricted movement. The Slugger's Case Bonds was charged with providing false statements to a investigative body about using banned substances and went on trial in 2011. Prosecutors dropped the charges after several years when the prosecutors opted not to contest an overturned ruling to the supreme court. A seven-time National League MVP and star performer, Bonds concluded his playing days after the 2007 season with a record home run tally, breaking the mark of 755 that Hank Aaron achieved from his career. He claimed he did not consciously consuming PEDs but has never been elected to the sport's hall of honor. Later Years The former convict told the Associated Press in a past conversation that “competitors do cheat to win, but the officials and lawyers cheat to win, too.” He wondered whether the results in these trials justified the effort. Post-incarceration, Conte resumed operations in the late 2000s by reviving a supplements company he had started years before called Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning or SNAC System. He operated in the same building that once housed the original company in Burlingame, California. Defiant Stance Conte continued to justify about his major involvement in doling out custom PEDs to top sports stars. He argued he simply helped “level the playing field” in a sports environment teeming with cheaters. Outside Views To a WADA member, a at the time a member of the WADA, Conte may as well have been distributing illegal narcotics. “You are talking about unlawful substance distribution. You are talking about substance use in breach of national statutes,” the doctor remarked in that period. “It's not a good deed and this is not some do-gooding. This is drug dealing.”