🔗 Share this article

Victor Conte, who devised a plan to supply undetectable performance-enhancing drugs to top competitors including MLB legends Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi and track and field star Jones decades ago, has passed away. He reached 75 years.

Government Probe and Criminal Cases

A national inquiry regarding an additional venture established by Conte, the Bay Area lab, culminated in the criminal findings of Jones, elite sprint cyclist Thomas, and ex-pro football defender Stubblefield, along with coaches, distributors, a trainer, a chemist and a lawyer.

Public Statements and Sentencing

Conte, who spent four months in federal prison for steroid distribution, spoke openly about his well-known clients. He went on television to assert he had seen triple Olympic champion Marion Jones inject herself with human growth hormones, but consistently avoided incriminating Barry Bonds, the baseball star.

Sport's Official Review

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

He revealed he sold steroids known as certain undetectable drugs and advised on their application to numerous top performers, including Giambi, a five-time major league All-Star, according to the report.

Using PEDs is a significant danger to the fairness of the competition,” the Mitchell report concluded. “Broad usage by players of these drugs unfairly disadvantages the those who refuse to cheat who refuse to use them and creates doubts about the validity of sporting achievements.”

The report noted the challenges didn’t develop overnight. Mitchell claimed each participant in professional baseball in the previous twenty years – including leaders, management, the players’ association and players – bore partial blame for what he called “the steroids era”.

Investigation Origins

The federal investigation into the laboratory was initiated by a IRS investigator digging through the corporate garbage. The defendant ultimately admitted guilt to two of the numerous counts filed against him in that year ahead of a court case. Six of the individuals found guilty were caught deceiving federal investigators.

Further Legal Actions

His fitness instructor Greg Anderson, pleaded guilty to illegal substance sales arising from his ties to the lab. He received a sentence to three months in jail and three months of house arrest.

His Court Proceedings

The baseball legend was indicted for lying to a federal jury about using performance-enhancing drugs and faced a trial in 2011. Prosecutors dropped the case down the line when the prosecutors opted not to challenge an overturned obstruction of justice conviction to the supreme court.

A seven-time National League MVP and frequent All-Star, Bonds ended his career after the that season with 762 homers, exceeding the milestone of 755 that Aaron established from the 1950s to 1970s. Bonds denied intentionally taking PEDs but has failed to gain entry to the sport's hall of honor.

After Incarceration

Conte told the Associated Press in a 2010 interview that “yes, athletes cheat to succeed, but the government agents and prosecutors also bend the rules.” He also questioned whether the conclusions in such legal cases justified the effort.

Following his prison term, Conte resumed operations in that year by rebooting a health products venture he had founded two decades earlier called SNAC System. He set up shop in the identical location that once housed Balco in Burlingame, California.

Continued Justification

He stayed unrepentant about his central role in providing custom PEDs to top sports stars. He claimed he simply helped “even the competition” in a world teeming with cheaters.

Outside Views

To a WADA member, a then-member of the World Anti-Doping Agency, Conte was essentially distributing hard drugs. “You are talking about unlawful substance distribution. It's about drug consumption in violation of federal law,” Wadler said in 2007. “It's not a good deed and not a benevolent act. It's trafficking.”