🔗 Share this article

Victor Conte, who masterminded a system to supply undetectable banned substances to professional athletes such as baseball icons Giambi and Bonds and sprinting gold medalist Marion Jones decades ago, has died. His age was 75.

Federal Investigation and Convictions

An official inquiry regarding another company set up by him, the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (Balco), culminated in the guilty verdicts of Marion Jones, elite sprint cyclist Tammy Thomas, and former NFL defensive lineman Dana Stubblefield, as well as various support personnel and professionals.

Public Statements and Prison Time

Conte, who completed a third of a year in a penitentiary for steroid distribution, talked publicly about his famous former clients. He was featured on TV to state he had witnessed three-time Olympic medalist Jones use a syringe with human growth hormones, but always refrained from incriminating Bonds, the Giants power hitter.

Sport's Official Review

This probe resulted in the publication Game of Shadows. Just days following the publication date in the mid-2000s, the sport's chief Bud Selig appointed ex-senator George Mitchell to look into PED use.

Conte stated he distributed steroids called “the cream” and “the clear” and advised on their usage to numerous professional sportspeople, including Giambi, a multiple-time All-Star, the Mitchell report said.

Using performance-enhancing substances poses a serious threat to the fairness of the sport,” the report stated. “Widespread use by athletes of such substances unfairly disadvantages the honest athletes who refuse to use them and leads to skepticism about the validity of sporting achievements.”

It was stated the issues took time to emerge. He said all parties in professional baseball in the preceding decades – encompassing commissioners, club officials, the players’ association and athletes themselves – bore partial blame for what he termed “the steroids era”.

Case Inception

The government's case into the laboratory started when a IRS investigator digging through the company’s trash. Conte eventually confessed to two of the numerous counts against him in the mid-2000s ahead of a court case. Half a dozen of the defendants sentenced were convicted for lying to federal investigators.

Further Legal Actions

Bonds’ personal trainer Greg Anderson, admitted guilt to steroid distribution charges linked to his ties to the lab. The court gave him to a quarter year in incarceration and three months of house arrest.

Bonds' Legal Battles

Bonds was charged with lying to a grand jury about receiving banned substances and went on trial in 2011. The case was dismissed the case after several years when the authorities chose not to challenge an reversed conviction to the highest court.

A decorated player and 14-time All-Star outfielder, Bonds concluded his playing days after the 2007 campaign with 762 home runs, breaking the mark of 755 that Hank Aaron achieved from the 1950s to 1970s. Bonds denied consciously consuming performance-enhancing drugs but has failed to gain entry to the sport's hall of honor.

Later Years

He told the Associated Press in a 2010 interview that “competitors do cheat to succeed, but the federal representatives also bend the rules.” He doubted whether the conclusions in these trials justified the effort.

Post-incarceration, Conte returned to work in the late 2000s by resuscitating a health products venture he had launched years before called his supplements brand. He operated in the same building that was home to his former lab in Burlingame.

Unapologetic Views

Conte continued to justify about his central role in providing custom PEDs to professional competitors. He maintained he simply helped “balance the odds” in a world already rife with doping athletes.

Expert Opinions

To Dr Gary Wadler, a former participant of the global anti-doping body, he was essentially selling hard drugs. “This involves unlawful substance distribution. You are talking about substance use in breach of national statutes,” he stated in that period. “This is not philanthropy and it's not altruistic. It's trafficking.”