🔗 Share this article

Victor Conte, who masterminded a plan to provide hard-to-detect PEDs to elite sports stars such as baseball greats Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi and sprinting gold medalist Jones decades ago, has died. He reached 75 years.

Official Inquiry and Convictions

A national investigation into an additional venture set up by him, the Bay Area lab, resulted in the guilty verdicts of Jones, competitive biker Thomas, and former NFL defensive lineman Dana Stubblefield, as well as coaches, distributors, a trainer, a chemist and a lawyer.

Public Statements and Sentencing

The Balco founder, who completed several months in federal prison for illegal drug sales, talked publicly about his famous former clients. He appeared on television to assert he had seen decorated Olympian Jones self-administer with human growth hormones, but consistently avoided pointing the finger at Bonds, the baseball star.

Baseball's Investigation

The investigation resulted in the volume titled Game of Shadows. A week after the release of the book in 2006, baseball Commissioner Selig brought on former senate majority leader Mitchell to look into PED use.

He revealed he distributed steroids called “the cream” and “the clear” and advised on their usage to dozens of elite athletes, including Jason Giambi, a star player, according to the report.

Using banned drugs is a significant danger to the fairness of the sport,” the Mitchell report concluded. “Prevalent consumption by athletes of these drugs puts at a disadvantage the those who refuse to cheat who decline to take them and raises questions about the legitimacy of sporting achievements.”

Mitchell indicated the challenges took time to emerge. Mitchell claimed everyone involved in professional baseball in the prior two decades – including leaders, management, the union and athletes themselves – were partly accountable for what he called the PED epoch.

How It Began

The government's case into Balco was initiated by a tax agent examining the business refuse. The defendant ultimately admitted guilt to two of the multiple accusations he faced in 2005 before a trial. Half a dozen of the defendants sentenced were caught misleading federal investigators.

Associated Convictions

The athlete's coach Anderson, confessed to illegal substance sales stemming from his ties to the lab. Anderson was sentenced to 90 days in incarceration and three months of house arrest.

Bonds' Legal Battles

The baseball legend was indicted for lying to a federal jury about obtaining PEDs and faced a trial in 2011. Prosecutors dropped his case four years later when the government decided not to appeal an overturned ruling to the supreme court.

A decorated player and frequent All-Star, Bonds retired after the 2007 campaign with 762 home runs, breaking the mark of Aaron's total that Hank Aaron achieved from his career. Bonds denied intentionally taking PEDs but has not been voted to the sport's hall of honor.

Conte's Post-Prison Life

He remarked to the press in a 2010 interview that “competitors do cheat to succeed, but the federal representatives also bend the rules.” He doubted whether the outcomes in such legal cases merited the work.

Following his prison term, he returned to work in that year by resuscitating a supplements company he had founded years before called his supplements brand. He set up shop in the same building that was home to Balco in the California city.

Continued Justification

Conte continued to justify about his major involvement in distributing custom PEDs to top sports stars. He argued he simply helped “even the competition” in a sports environment already rife with cheaters.

Outside Views

To Dr Gary Wadler, a former participant of the WADA, Conte may as well have been selling illegal narcotics. “It concerns totally illegal drug trafficking. It's about drug consumption in defiance of legal codes,” Wadler said in the past. “This is not philanthropy and it's not altruistic. This is drug dealing.”