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The orchestrator of the plot, who engineered a system to supply undetectable PEDs to elite sports stars such as baseball icons Giambi and Bonds and Olympic track champion Marion Jones decades ago, has died. He reached 75 years.

Federal Investigation and Convictions

A national probe of an additional venture set up by him, the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (Balco), led to the guilty verdicts of Marion Jones, competitive biker Thomas, and retired NFL player Dana Stubblefield, along with coaches, distributors, a trainer, a chemist and a lawyer.

Conte's Admissions and Sentencing

He, who served a third of a year in federal prison for illegal drug sales, talked publicly about his high-profile athletes. He appeared on TV to claim he had witnessed three-time Olympic medalist Jones inject herself with HGH, but consistently avoided pointing the finger at Barry Bonds, the Giants power hitter.

The Mitchell Report

The investigation resulted in the book Game of Shadows. Just days following the publication date in the mid-2000s, MLB commissioner Selig appointed political figure Mitchell to examine doping in baseball.

Conte stated he provided steroids known as two specific substances and coached on their usage to dozens of top performers, like Giambi, a star player, the Mitchell report said.

Employing banned drugs poses a serious threat to the honesty of the game,” the report stated. “Broad usage by competitors of such substances unfairly disadvantages the clean players who refuse to use them and leads to skepticism about the validity of baseball records.”

It was stated the challenges took time to emerge. He said everyone involved in the sport in the preceding decades – covering commissioners, management, the representative body and athletes themselves – bore partial blame for what he labeled “the steroids era”.

Case Inception

The official probe into Balco started when a IRS investigator searching the company’s trash. Conte ultimately admitted guilt to two of the multiple accusations filed against him in that year prior to court proceedings. Half a dozen of the defendants sentenced were convicted for misleading the court.

Further Legal Actions

Bonds’ personal trainer Greg Anderson, confessed to drug dealing counts stemming from his ties to the lab. Anderson was sentenced to 90 days in prison and three months of restricted movement.

The Slugger's Case

The home run king was charged with lying to a investigative body about using performance-enhancing drugs and went on trial in 2011. The government abandoned the case four years later when the authorities chose not to appeal an overturned ruling to the federal apex court.

A decorated player and 14-time All-Star outfielder, he retired after the 2007 season with a record home run tally, breaking the record of Aaron's total that Aaron established from his career. Bonds denied knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs but has not been voted to the sport's hall of honor.

After Incarceration

The former convict stated in an interview in a 2010 discussion that “yes, athletes cheat to win, but the officials and lawyers engage in misconduct as well.” He doubted whether the conclusions in such proceedings justified the effort.

Post-incarceration, he got back in business in that year by reviving a supplements company he had launched years before called his supplements brand. He set up shop in the same building that once housed his former lab in Burlingame, California.

Defiant Stance

The controversial figure stayed unrepentant about his central role in doling out designer steroids to top sports stars. He argued he simply helped “balance the odds” in a arena already rife with rule-breakers.

Outside Views

To Dr Gary Wadler, a then-member of the World Anti-Doping Agency, Conte may as well have been distributing hard drugs. “This involves totally illegal drug trafficking. You are talking about using drugs in breach of national statutes,” he stated in 2007. “This is not philanthropy and it's not altruistic. It's trafficking.”