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Victor Conte, who devised a plan to supply undetectable performance-enhancing drugs to professional athletes featuring baseball greats Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi and track and field star Jones decades ago, has died. He was 75.

Government Probe and Criminal Cases

The federal government's inquiry regarding another company established by Conte, Balco, culminated in the guilty verdicts of Marion Jones, competitive biker Tammy Thomas, and ex-pro football defender Stubblefield, as well as coaches, distributors, a trainer, a chemist and a lawyer.

Conte's Admissions and Sentencing

The Balco founder, who served four months in a federal facility for dealing steroids, discussed frankly about his famous former clients. He was featured on TV to state he had seen three-time Olympic medalist Jones inject herself with HGH, but never directly incriminating Bonds, the baseball star.

The Mitchell Report

The federal case led to the publication titled Game of Shadows. A week after the release of the book in that year, baseball Commissioner Bud Selig hired former senate majority leader George Mitchell to examine doping in baseball.

He admitted he distributed steroids referred to as certain undetectable drugs and guided their use to numerous elite athletes, like Giambi, a star player, as per the investigation.

“The illegal use of banned drugs poses a serious threat to the honesty of the game,” the findings emphasized. “Widespread use by competitors of such substances puts at a disadvantage the honest athletes who refuse to use them and raises questions about the legitimacy of sporting achievements.”

The report noted the problems were not sudden. Mitchell claimed each participant in professional baseball in the preceding decades – encompassing leaders, management, the union and players – shared some responsibility for what he labeled the PED epoch.

Case Inception

The official probe into the laboratory was initiated by a tax agent examining the business refuse. Conte ultimately admitted guilt to two of the 42 charges he faced in 2005 ahead of a court case. Six of the 11 convicted people were ensnared for lying to federal investigators.

Associated Convictions

The athlete's coach Anderson, admitted guilt to illegal substance sales stemming from his involvement with Balco. Anderson was sentenced to 90 days in jail and an equal period of house arrest.

Bonds' Legal Battles

Bonds was accused of providing false statements to a investigative body about using performance-enhancing drugs and went on trial in the early 2010s. Prosecutors dropped the charges down the line when the government decided not to appeal an overturned ruling to the supreme court.

A seven-time National League MVP and 14-time All-Star outfielder, he ended his career after the 2007 campaign with 762 homers, breaking the record of Aaron's total that Hank Aaron set from his career. Bonds denied consciously consuming banned substances but has never been elected to the sport's hall of honor.

Later Years

He remarked to the press in a 2010 discussion that “sportspeople break rules to win, but the federal representatives engage in misconduct as well.” He doubted whether the conclusions in these trials were worth the resources.

Post-incarceration, Conte got back in business in the late 2000s by resuscitating a health products venture he had founded two decades earlier called his supplements brand. He located it in the same building that was home to his former lab in the California city.

Defiant Stance

He continued to justify about his major involvement in doling out tailored drugs to elite athletes. He argued he simply helped “balance the odds” in a sports environment full of cheaters.

Outside Views

To an expert, a then-member of the World Anti-Doping Agency, Conte could be compared to pushing hard drugs. “You are talking about totally illegal drug trafficking. You are talking about substance use in defiance of legal codes,” he stated in that period. “This is not philanthropy and this is not some do-gooding. It's illegal sales.”