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The man behind the scheme, who masterminded a operation to provide stealthy performance-enhancing drugs to elite sports stars including MLB legends Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi and track and field star Marion Jones years back, has died. His age was 75.

Federal Investigation and Convictions

An official investigation into an additional venture set up by him, the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (Balco), culminated in the criminal findings of Marion Jones, top track cyclist Tammy Thomas, and ex-pro football defender Dana Stubblefield, as well as coaches, distributors, a trainer, a chemist and a lawyer.

Conte's Admissions and Sentencing

Conte, who served a third of a year in a federal facility for illegal drug sales, discussed frankly about his well-known clients. He went on broadcast media to assert he had seen decorated Olympian Jones self-administer with growth hormones, but always refrained from incriminating Barry Bonds, the San Francisco Giants slugger.

Baseball's Investigation

The investigation resulted in the volume Game of Shadows. Just days following the book's publication in the mid-2000s, baseball Commissioner Selig hired former senate majority leader Mitchell to investigate steroids.

He admitted he distributed steroids referred to as certain undetectable drugs and coached on their use to dozens of top performers, such as Giambi, a star player, the Mitchell report said.

Employing performance-enhancing substances represents a major risk to the fairness of the competition,” the report stated. “Prevalent consumption by athletes of these compounds puts at a disadvantage the clean players who refuse to use them and raises questions about the legitimacy of historical stats.”

The report noted the challenges were not sudden. The report emphasized each participant in the sport in the preceding decades – including leaders, team executives, the union and players – were partly accountable for what he labeled “the steroids era”.

How It Began

The government's case into the company began with a tax agent examining the company’s trash. He eventually confessed to a couple of the 42 charges against him in 2005 prior to court proceedings. Six of the 11 convicted people were caught misleading federal investigators.

Further Legal Actions

Bonds’ personal trainer Greg Anderson, admitted guilt to steroid distribution charges stemming from his ties to the lab. The court gave him to a quarter year in prison and an equal period of house arrest.

His Court Proceedings

The home run king was accused of lying to a investigative body about receiving banned substances and went on trial in that year. Prosecutors dropped the charges after several years when the government decided not to challenge an overturned obstruction of justice conviction to the supreme court.

A decorated player and frequent All-Star, he concluded his playing days after the 2007 season with 762 home runs, breaking the mark of that number that Aaron achieved from 1954-76. The athlete refuted knowingly using banned substances but has never been elected to the Hall of Fame.

Later Years

The former convict told the Associated Press in a past conversation that “yes, athletes cheat to succeed, but the federal representatives cheat to win, too.” He doubted whether the outcomes in such legal cases justified the effort.

Following his prison term, Conte got back in business in the late 2000s by resuscitating a nutritional supplements business he had started years before called Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning or SNAC System. He operated in the very same place that previously contained the original company in Burlingame, California.

Continued Justification

The controversial figure remained defiant about his central role in doling out designer steroids to elite athletes. He argued he simply helped “even the competition” in a arena teeming with doping athletes.

Outside Views

To a WADA member, a at the time a member of the WADA, he was essentially pushing hard drugs. “You are talking about blatant drug dealing. This refers to using drugs in defiance of legal codes,” the doctor remarked in that period. “This isn't charity and it's not altruistic. It's trafficking.”