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The man behind the scheme, who masterminded a system to provide undetectable performance-enhancing drugs to top competitors including MLB legends Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi and sprinting gold medalist Marion Jones in the past, has died. He was 75.

Government Probe and Convictions

An official probe of another company set up by him, the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (Balco), resulted in the convictions of Jones, competitive biker Thomas, and retired NFL player Stubblefield, in addition to various support personnel and professionals.

Conte's Admissions and Prison Time

He, who completed a third of a year in a federal facility for dealing steroids, discussed frankly about his well-known clients. He went on broadcast media to assert he had witnessed three-time Olympic medalist Jones inject herself with HGH, but consistently avoided implicating Barry Bonds, the San Francisco Giants slugger.

The Mitchell Report

The federal case led to the book titled Game of Shadows. Shortly after the publication date in that year, MLB commissioner Bud Selig hired political figure George Mitchell to investigate steroids.

He admitted he provided steroids known as certain undetectable drugs and guided their usage to many elite athletes, including Giambi, a star player, as per the investigation.

“The illegal use of banned drugs represents a major risk to the fairness of the competition,” the Mitchell report concluded. “Prevalent consumption by athletes of these compounds unfairly disadvantages the honest athletes who avoid them and raises questions about the accuracy of baseball records.”

Mitchell indicated the issues didn’t develop overnight. He said each participant in the sport in the previous twenty years – covering commissioners, club officials, the players’ association and players – were partly accountable for what he called “the steroids era”.

Investigation Origins

The federal investigation into the laboratory started when a IRS investigator examining the business refuse. He ended up pleading guilty to two of the numerous counts filed against him in that year ahead of a court case. Six of the individuals found guilty were caught deceiving federal investigators.

Associated Convictions

Bonds’ personal trainer Greg Anderson, confessed to drug dealing counts stemming from his Balco connections. The court gave him to a quarter year in incarceration and three months of house arrest.

Bonds' Legal Battles

The home run king was accused of lying to a grand jury about obtaining banned substances and stood trial in 2011. The government abandoned the charges four years later when the prosecutors opted not to challenge an overturned ruling to the highest court.

A multiple MVP winner and 14-time All-Star outfielder, Bonds ended his career after the that season with 762 homers, surpassing the mark of Aaron's total that Hank Aaron established from the 1950s to 1970s. The athlete refuted consciously consuming PEDs but has never been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Later Years

He told the Associated Press in a 2010 interview that “yes, athletes cheat to win, but the officials and lawyers also bend the rules.” He wondered whether the results in such proceedings merited the work.

Following his prison term, he resumed operations in 2007 by rebooting a supplements company he had launched years before called his supplements brand. He operated in the very same place that once housed Balco in Burlingame, California.

Defiant Stance

The controversial figure remained defiant about his major involvement in doling out custom PEDs to top sports stars. He claimed he simply helped “balance the odds” in a sports environment already rife with doping athletes.

Expert Opinions

To a WADA member, a former participant of the World Anti-Doping Agency, Conte may as well have been pushing hard drugs. “You are talking about unlawful substance distribution. It's about using drugs in defiance of legal codes,” the doctor remarked in 2007. “It's not a good deed and not a benevolent act. This is drug dealing.”