Victor Conte, who sold undetectable steroids to elite athletes in baseball and track, has died at 75
Victor Conte, the architect of an undetected plan performance enhancing drugs Professional athletes, including baseball stars Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi and Olympic track and field champion Marion Jones, died decades ago. He was 75 years old.
SNAC System, the sports nutrition company he founded, said in a social media post that Conte died on Monday. He did not disclose the cause of death.
The federal government’s investigation into Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative, another company Conte founded, led to convictions of Jones, elite sprint cyclist Tammy Thomas and former NFL linebacker Dana Stubblefield, as well as coaches, distributors, a trainer, a chemist and an attorney.
The investigation led to the book “Shadow Play”. A week after the book was published in 2006, baseball Commissioner Bud Selig hired former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell to investigate steroids.
According to the Mitchell report, Conte said he sold steroids known as “cream” and “clear” and advised dozens of elite athletes, including five-time major league All-Star Giambi, on their use.
The federal investigation into BALCO began when a tax preparer went through the company’s trash.
Conte pleaded guilty to two of the 42 charges against him before his 2005 trial and spent four months in a minimum security prison. Six of the 11 people convicted were set up because they lied 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 house arrest.
Bonds was accused of lying to a grand jury about taking performance-enhancing drugs and was tried in 2011. Prosecutors dropped the case four years later after the government decided not to appeal the overturned obstruction of justice conviction to the Supreme Court.
The career of Bonds, a seven-time National League MVP and 14-time All-Star outfielder, is over his career After the 2007 season, he hit 762 homers, surpassing Hank Aaron’s record of 755, set from 1954-76. It was denied that Bonds knowingly used performance-enhancing drugs, but never elected To the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Bonds did not respond to an email seeking comment.
“Yes, athletes cheat to win, but government officials and prosecutors also cheat to win,” Conte told The Associated Press in a 2010 interview. He also questioned whether the results in such legal cases justified the effort.
Conte’s attorney, Robert Holley, did not respond to an email seeking comment. SNAC System did not respond to a message sent through the company’s website.
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Associated Press writer Janie McCauley contributed to this report.
