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, MLB 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.
Conte pleaded 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.
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.
The federal investigation into BALCO began with a tax agent digging through the company’s trash.