🔗 Share this article Victor Conte, Key Figure in Notorious Sports Performance-Enhancing Drug Scandal, Succumbs at Age 75. The man behind the scheme, who masterminded a plan to provide undetectable PEDs to elite sports stars including MLB legends Giambi and Bonds and Olympic track champion Jones decades ago, is deceased. His age was 75. Government Probe and Criminal Cases A national probe of an additional venture Conte founded, Balco, resulted in the criminal findings of Jones, competitive biker Tammy Thomas, and ex-pro football defender Dana Stubblefield, along with trainers, suppliers, chemists, attorneys, and coaches. Public Statements and Legal Consequences He, who served a third of a year in federal prison for steroid distribution, spoke openly about his high-profile athletes. He was featured on broadcast media to state he had seen three-time Olympic medalist Jones self-administer with growth hormones, but consistently avoided pointing the finger at Bonds, the Giants power hitter. Sport's Official Review The federal case resulted in the book titled Game of Shadows. Just days following the book's publication in 2006, baseball Commissioner Selig appointed political figure George Mitchell to investigate steroids. He revealed he provided steroids called two specific substances and coached on their usage to dozens of elite athletes, like Jason Giambi, a multiple-time All-Star, according to the report. Employing banned drugs poses a serious threat to the honesty of the game,” the Mitchell report concluded. “Prevalent consumption by athletes of such substances puts at a disadvantage the honest athletes who avoid them and raises questions about the accuracy of sporting achievements.” The report noted the problems were not sudden. The report emphasized everyone involved in professional baseball in the previous twenty years – encompassing commissioners, team executives, the players’ association and athletes themselves – bore partial blame for what he labeled the PED epoch. Investigation Origins The official probe into Balco started when a tax agent examining the company’s trash. He ended up pleading guilty to a couple of the 42 charges he faced in that year before a trial. Several of the defendants sentenced were ensnared for lying to the court. Associated Convictions His fitness instructor Greg Anderson, confessed to steroid distribution charges linked to his involvement with Balco. The court gave him to three months in incarceration and an equal period of restricted movement. Bonds' Legal Battles The baseball legend was indicted for lying to a grand jury about obtaining performance-enhancing drugs and stood trial in that year. The case was dismissed the charges four years later when the government decided not to appeal an overturned ruling to the supreme court. A decorated player and star performer, Bonds ended his career after the that season with a record home run tally, surpassing the milestone of Aaron's total that Hank Aaron set from 1954-76. Bonds denied knowingly using PEDs but has never been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Conte's Post-Prison Life He stated in an interview in a 2010 discussion that “yes, athletes cheat to succeed, but the officials and lawyers engage in misconduct as well.” He doubted whether the conclusions in these trials merited the work. Following his prison term, Conte got back in business in the late 2000s by rebooting a supplements company he had launched years before called Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning or SNAC System. He set up shop in the same building that once housed his former lab in Burlingame. Continued Justification He stayed unrepentant about his key part in providing custom PEDs to top sports stars. He argued he simply helped “level the playing field” in a world already rife with cheaters. Critical Perspectives To Dr Gary Wadler, a at the time a member of the global anti-doping body, he may as well have been selling hard drugs. “This involves totally illegal drug trafficking. It's about drug consumption in breach of national statutes,” the doctor remarked in 2007. “It's not a good deed and this is not some do-gooding. This is drug dealing.”