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The orchestrator of the plot, who masterminded a operation to supply hard-to-detect performance-enhancing drugs to professional athletes such as baseball icons Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi and Olympic track champion Jones years back, has passed away. His age was 75.

Federal Investigation and Criminal Cases

The federal government's probe of an additional venture Conte founded, Balco, led to the guilty verdicts of Marion Jones, competitive biker Thomas, and retired NFL player Stubblefield, in addition to various support personnel and professionals.

Public Statements and Sentencing

The Balco founder, who completed a third of a year in federal prison for steroid distribution, discussed frankly about his famous former clients. He was featured on broadcast media to assert he had seen three-time Olympic medalist Jones self-administer with growth hormones, but always refrained from incriminating Barry Bonds, the San Francisco Giants slugger.

The Mitchell Report

This probe resulted in the volume titled Game of Shadows. Just days following the publication date in 2006, the sport's chief Selig hired ex-senator George Mitchell to look into PED use.

He admitted he sold steroids called two specific substances and coached on their usage to dozens of professional sportspeople, including Giambi, a multiple-time All-Star, the Mitchell report said.

“The illegal use of performance-enhancing substances poses a serious threat to the honesty of the game,” the Mitchell report concluded. “Widespread use by players of these compounds harms the clean players who avoid them and leads to skepticism about the legitimacy of historical stats.”

The report noted the issues were not sudden. Mitchell claimed everyone involved in baseball in the previous twenty years – including leaders, management, the union and players – were partly accountable for what he termed the PED epoch.

How It Began

The government's case into Balco began with a revenue officer searching the company’s trash. Conte eventually confessed to a pair of the multiple accusations he faced in that year ahead of a court case. Six of the individuals found guilty were caught lying to grand jurors.

Related Cases

His fitness instructor Greg Anderson, admitted guilt to steroid distribution charges stemming from his Balco connections. He received a sentence to 90 days in incarceration and the same duration of home confinement.

His Court Proceedings

Bonds was indicted for providing false statements to a investigative body about obtaining PEDs and went on trial in 2011. Prosecutors dropped the charges down the line when the prosecutors opted not to appeal an overturned ruling to the supreme court.

A seven-time National League MVP and star performer, he ended his career after the 2007 season with a record home run tally, breaking the milestone of 755 that Aaron set from 1954-76. The athlete refuted consciously consuming performance-enhancing drugs but has failed to gain entry to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Conte's Post-Prison Life

The former convict told the Associated Press in a 2010 discussion that “competitors do cheat to win, but the officials and lawyers also bend the rules.” He wondered whether the results in such proceedings justified the effort.

After serving his sentence, he got back in business in that year by resuscitating a nutritional supplements business he had launched years before called Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning or SNAC System. He operated in the very same place that was home to the original company in the California city.

Defiant Stance

He remained defiant about his central role in doling out custom PEDs to top sports stars. He argued he simply helped “balance the odds” in a arena already rife with doping athletes.

Outside Views

To a WADA member, a at the time a member of the World Anti-Doping Agency, Conte was essentially selling illegal narcotics. “It concerns blatant drug dealing. This refers to drug consumption in defiance of legal codes,” the doctor remarked in that period. “This isn't charity and not a benevolent act. It's trafficking.”