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The man behind the scheme, who engineered a system to distribute stealthy performance-enhancing drugs to professional athletes including baseball icons Giambi and Bonds and sprinting gold medalist Marion Jones decades ago, has died. He was 75.

Government Probe and Convictions

An official investigation into an additional venture Conte founded, the Bay Area lab, culminated in the criminal findings of Marion Jones, top track cyclist Thomas, and retired NFL player Dana Stubblefield, as well as various support personnel and professionals.

Public Statements and Sentencing

Conte, who spent a third of a year in a penitentiary for steroid distribution, talked publicly about his well-known clients. He was featured on broadcast media to claim he had witnessed three-time Olympic medalist Jones self-administer with growth hormones, but always refrained from pointing the finger at Bonds, the Giants power hitter.

The Mitchell Report

The federal case led to the publication Game of Shadows. Shortly after the book's publication in the mid-2000s, baseball Commissioner Selig brought on political figure George Mitchell to look into PED use.

Conte stated he provided steroids called two specific substances and guided their use to dozens of elite athletes, including Giambi, a multiple-time All-Star, according to the report.

Employing banned drugs represents a major risk to the integrity of the competition,” the report stated. “Prevalent consumption by players of these compounds puts at a disadvantage the those who refuse to cheat who avoid them and creates doubts about the accuracy of historical stats.”

The report noted the challenges didn’t develop overnight. He said all parties in professional baseball in the preceding decades – including leaders, club officials, the union and athletes themselves – bore partial blame for what he termed the PED epoch.

Investigation Origins

The government's case into Balco started when a IRS investigator digging through the business refuse. He ended up pleading guilty to two of the multiple accusations against him in that year prior to court proceedings. Several of the defendants sentenced were caught misleading federal investigators.

Further Legal Actions

The athlete's coach Greg Anderson, confessed to steroid distribution charges linked to his ties to the lab. The court gave him to three months in prison and the same duration of home confinement.

His Court Proceedings

The home run king was charged with deceiving a investigative body about using PEDs and stood trial in 2011. The government abandoned his case down the line when the government decided not to contest an overturned ruling to the supreme court.

A multiple MVP winner and star performer, he ended his career after the 2007 campaign with 762 homers, exceeding the mark of that number that Aaron achieved from his career. He claimed he did not intentionally taking PEDs but has failed to gain entry to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

After Incarceration

He stated in an interview 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 justified the effort.

After serving his sentence, Conte resumed operations in the late 2000s by resuscitating a supplements company he had started two decades earlier called his supplements brand. He located it in the same building that was home to his former lab in Burlingame.

Defiant Stance

He remained defiant about his central role in distributing designer steroids to professional competitors. He maintained he simply helped “even the competition” in a arena already rife with doping athletes.

Outside Views

To an expert, a at the time a member of the World Anti-Doping Agency, Conte could be compared to distributing hard drugs. “You are talking about unlawful substance distribution. This refers to drug consumption in defiance of legal codes,” Wadler said in 2007. “This isn't charity and it's not altruistic. It's illegal sales.”