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The orchestrator of the plot, who devised a system to provide undetectable performance-enhancing drugs to professional athletes including baseball greats Giambi and Bonds and track and field star Jones decades ago, has died. He reached 75 years.

Official Inquiry and Criminal Cases

The federal government's inquiry regarding another company established by Conte, Balco, led to the guilty verdicts of Marion Jones, top track cyclist Thomas, and ex-pro football defender Stubblefield, as well as various support personnel and professionals.

Conte's Admissions and Prison Time

The Balco founder, who completed a third of a year in a penitentiary for steroid distribution, talked publicly about his high-profile athletes. He was featured on TV to state he had observed triple Olympic champion Jones use a syringe with HGH, but never directly implicating Bonds, the Giants power hitter.

The Mitchell Report

The investigation led to the volume Game of Shadows. Shortly after the publication date in 2006, baseball Commissioner Bud Selig brought on political figure Mitchell to look into PED use.

He admitted he distributed steroids called certain undetectable drugs and advised on their application to dozens of professional sportspeople, including Jason Giambi, a five-time major league All-Star, the Mitchell report said.

Employing banned drugs is a significant danger to the fairness of the competition,” the Mitchell report concluded. “Widespread use by players of such substances puts at a disadvantage the honest athletes who decline to take them and raises questions about the accuracy of baseball records.”

It was stated the problems took time to emerge. The report emphasized everyone involved in the sport in the prior two decades – covering commissioners, team executives, the representative body and players – shared some responsibility for what he labeled the doping period.

Case Inception

The government's case into the company started when a revenue officer digging through the corporate garbage. Conte ended up pleading guilty to a couple of the numerous counts against him in 2005 ahead of a court case. Six of the defendants sentenced were convicted for deceiving federal investigators.

Associated Convictions

Bonds’ personal trainer Greg Anderson, confessed to steroid distribution charges linked to his Balco connections. Anderson was sentenced to 90 days in incarceration and the same duration of house arrest.

Bonds' Legal Battles

Bonds was accused of deceiving a federal jury about using performance-enhancing drugs and went on trial in the early 2010s. Prosecutors dropped his case after several years when the prosecutors opted not to challenge an overturned ruling to the highest court.

A seven-time National League MVP and star performer, he retired after the that season with 762 home runs, exceeding the milestone of 755 that Hank Aaron established from 1954-76. Bonds denied intentionally taking PEDs but has not been voted to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Conte's Post-Prison Life

The former convict stated in an interview in a 2010 interview that “competitors do cheat to win, but the government agents and prosecutors cheat to win, too.” He also questioned whether the outcomes in these trials were worth the resources.

After serving his sentence, he returned to work in 2007 by rebooting a health products venture he had launched years before called SNAC System. He operated in the identical location that previously contained the original company in the California city.

Defiant Stance

He continued to justify about his key part in distributing custom PEDs to elite athletes. He maintained he simply helped “level the playing field” in a sports environment teeming with doping athletes.

Outside Views

To a WADA member, a then-member of the global anti-doping body, Conte may as well have been selling illegal narcotics. “It concerns totally illegal drug trafficking. You are talking about using drugs in defiance of legal codes,” Wadler said in 2007. “This isn't charity and not a benevolent act. It's illegal sales.”