🔗 Share this article The Balco mastermind, Key Figure in Infamous Sports Performance-Enhancing Drug Controversy, Dies at 75. Victor Conte, who devised a system to supply stealthy banned substances to professional athletes featuring baseball greats Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi and track and field star Marion Jones years back, has died. He reached 75 years. Federal Investigation and Criminal Cases A national investigation into an additional venture set up by him, Balco, led to the convictions of Jones, elite sprint cyclist Thomas, and former NFL defensive lineman Dana Stubblefield, along with coaches, distributors, a trainer, a chemist and a lawyer. Public Statements and Prison Time The Balco founder, who served several months in a penitentiary for steroid distribution, discussed frankly about his high-profile athletes. He appeared on television to claim he had observed decorated Olympian Jones inject herself with HGH, but consistently avoided incriminating Barry Bonds, the Giants power hitter. The Mitchell Report The investigation resulted in the book titled Game of Shadows. Shortly after the book's publication in the mid-2000s, the sport's chief Bud Selig hired ex-senator George Mitchell to investigate steroids. He admitted he provided steroids called “the cream” and “the clear” and advised on their usage to dozens of elite athletes, including Giambi, a star player, as per the investigation. “The illegal use of performance-enhancing substances poses a serious threat to the fairness of the game,” the Mitchell report concluded. “Prevalent consumption by players of these drugs harms the clean players who avoid them and leads to skepticism about the accuracy of sporting achievements.” Mitchell indicated the challenges didn’t develop overnight. He said all parties in the sport in the prior two decades – covering commissioners, management, the representative body and athletes themselves – shared some responsibility for what he called “the steroids era”. Case Inception The official probe into the laboratory started when a IRS investigator digging through the business refuse. Conte ended up pleading guilty to a couple of the numerous counts he faced in 2005 before a trial. Several of the defendants sentenced were convicted for deceiving the court. Associated Convictions The athlete's coach Greg Anderson, pleaded guilty to drug dealing counts stemming from his Balco connections. The court gave him to a quarter year in incarceration and three months of restricted movement. His Court Proceedings The baseball legend was charged with providing false statements to a federal jury about receiving PEDs and faced a trial in the early 2010s. The case was dismissed the charges four years later when the authorities chose not to appeal an reversed conviction to the supreme court. A decorated player and frequent All-Star, Bonds ended his career after the 2007 season with a record home run tally, exceeding the mark of Aaron's total that Hank Aaron set from his career. He claimed he did not intentionally taking PEDs but has never been elected to the sport's hall of honor. Conte's Post-Prison Life Conte told the Associated Press in a 2010 discussion that “sportspeople break rules to triumph, but the officials and lawyers engage in misconduct as well.” He doubted whether the outcomes in such proceedings were worth the resources. After serving his sentence, he resumed operations in the late 2000s by reviving a health products venture he had started previously called Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning or SNAC System. He located it in the identical location that was home to Balco in the California city. Continued Justification The controversial figure stayed unrepentant about his key part in providing designer steroids to elite athletes. He maintained he simply helped “level the playing field” in a sports environment full of doping athletes. Expert Opinions To a WADA member, a then-member of the global anti-doping body, Conte was essentially pushing cocaine or heroin. “You are talking about blatant drug dealing. You are talking about drug consumption in breach of national statutes,” the doctor remarked in the past. “This is not philanthropy and it's not altruistic. It's trafficking.”