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The man behind the scheme, who devised a system to supply hard-to-detect banned substances to professional athletes including MLB legends Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi and sprinting gold medalist Jones decades ago, has passed away. He was 75.

Government Probe and Convictions

The federal government's investigation into a separate firm Conte founded, Balco, led to the criminal findings of Jones, competitive biker Thomas, and ex-pro football defender Stubblefield, as well as various support personnel and professionals.

Open Discussions and Prison Time

He, who completed a third of a year in federal prison for steroid distribution, discussed frankly about his famous former clients. He went on TV to state he had seen triple Olympic champion Marion Jones inject herself with growth hormones, but never directly incriminating Bonds, the Giants power hitter.

Baseball's Investigation

This probe inspired the book titled Game of Shadows. Shortly after the publication date in that year, the sport's chief Bud Selig hired political figure Mitchell to examine doping in baseball.

He admitted he distributed steroids known as two specific substances and guided their usage to many elite athletes, such as Jason Giambi, a star player, according to the report.

Employing PEDs poses a serious threat to the integrity of the game,” the Mitchell report concluded. “Prevalent consumption by players of these drugs puts at a disadvantage the clean players who decline to take them and leads to skepticism about the accuracy of baseball records.”

The report noted the issues were not sudden. Mitchell claimed all parties in baseball in the preceding decades – including leaders, management, the representative body and athletes themselves – bore partial blame for what he termed the PED epoch.

How It Began

The official probe into the company was initiated by a tax agent examining the business refuse. He ended up pleading guilty to a pair of the 42 charges filed against him in the mid-2000s prior to court proceedings. Several of the 11 convicted people were ensnared for lying to grand jurors.

Further Legal Actions

Bonds’ personal trainer Anderson, pleaded guilty to illegal substance sales stemming from his ties to the lab. Anderson was sentenced to a quarter year in prison and an equal period of house arrest.

Bonds' Legal Battles

The baseball legend was indicted for lying to a federal jury about obtaining PEDs and stood trial in the early 2010s. The government abandoned the case down the line when the government decided not to challenge an reversed conviction to the federal apex court.

A decorated player and star performer, Bonds concluded his playing days after the 2007 campaign with 762 homers, breaking the mark of that number that Hank Aaron established from the 1950s to 1970s. Bonds denied knowingly using banned substances but has never been elected to the Hall of Fame.

Later Years

Conte told the Associated Press in a 2010 discussion that “competitors do cheat to win, but the government agents and prosecutors also bend the rules.” He wondered whether the results in such legal cases were worth the resources.

Following his prison term, he returned to work in 2007 by reviving a nutritional supplements business he had launched two decades earlier called SNAC System. He operated in the very same place that once housed Balco in Burlingame.

Unapologetic Views

Conte remained defiant about his major involvement in providing custom PEDs to professional competitors. He maintained he simply helped “level the playing field” in a arena full of doping athletes.

Expert Opinions

To an expert, a then-member of the World Anti-Doping Agency, he was essentially distributing illegal narcotics. “It concerns unlawful substance distribution. This refers to drug consumption in defiance of legal codes,” Wadler said in that period. “It's not a good deed and this is not some do-gooding. This is drug dealing.”