Victor Conte, the architect of a scheme to provide undetectable performance-enhancing drugs to professional athletes including baseball stars Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi and Olympic track champion Marion Jones decades ago, has died. He was 75.
Conte died Monday, SNAC System, a sports nutrition company he founded, said in a social media post. It did not disclose his cause of death.
The federal government’s investigation into another company Conte founded, the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, yielded convictions of Jones, elite sprint cyclist Tammy Thomas, and former NFL defensive lineman Dana Stubblefield along with coaches, distributors, a trainer, a chemist and a lawyer.
The investigation led to the book “Game of Shadows.” A week after the book was published in 2006, baseball Commissioner Bud Selig hired former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell to investigate steroids.
Conte said he sold steroids known as “the cream” and “the clear” and advised on their use to dozens of elite athletes including Giambi, a five-time major league All-Star, the Mitchell report said.
The federal investigation into BALCO began with a tax agent digging through the company’s trash.
Conte wound up pleading guilty to two of the 42 charges against him in 2005 before trial and served four months in a minimum-security prison. Six of the 11 convicted people were ensnared for lying to grand jurors, federal investigators or the court.
Star slugger Bonds’ personal trainer Greg Anderson, pleaded guilty to steroid distribution charges stemming from his BALCO connections. Anderson was sentenced to three months in prison and three months of home confinement.
Bonds was charged with lying to a grand jury about receiving performance-enhancing drugs and went on trial in 2011. Prosecutors dropped the case four years later when the government decided not to appeal an overturned obstruction of justice conviction to the Supreme Court.
A seven-time National League MVP and 14-time All-Star outfielder, Bonds ended his career after the 2007 season with 762 homers, surpassing the record of 755 that Hank Aaron set from 1954-76. Bonds denied knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs but has never been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Bonds didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.
Conte told The Associated Press in a 2010 interview “that yes, athletes cheat to win, but the government agents and prosecutors cheat to win, too.” He also questioned whether the results in such legal cases justified the effort.
Conte’s attorney, Robert Holley, didn’t respond to an email seeking comment. SNAC System didn’t respond to a message sent through the company’s website.
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Associated Press writer Janie McCauley contributed to this report.
