Career
He served time in prison in 2005 after pleading guilty to conspiracy to distribute steroids and money laundering. In the 1970s, Conte played bass guitar in the group Common Ground with cousin Bruce (later of fame) on electric guitar. At the time he had the nickname "Walking Fish" from his days playing with the Pure Food & Drug Acting.
He later founded the Bay Area Laboratory Company-operative or, a sports nutrition center in Burlingame, California, which the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) says developed the banned steroid tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) with the help of bodybuilding chemist Patrick Arnold.
Pursuant to a plea bargain struck with prosecutors, he entered guilty pleas in July 2005 to one count of conspiracy to distribute steroids and a second count of laundering a portion of a check, he was sentenced in October to spend four months in prison and another four on house arrest. In December 2004, he participated in an interview with Martin Bashir on American Broadcasting Company"s 20/20 program, where he admitted to running doping programs, which have broken Olympic records, as well as revealing that: "The whole history of the games is just full of corruption, cover-up, performance-enhancing drug use."
On 21 December 2006, Yahoo Sports reported that one of Conte"s initial defense lawyers, Troy Ellerman, had been targeted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a possible source of leaks to the media during the Barry Bonds probe.
On February 14, 2007, Ellerman pleaded guilty to leaking grand jury testimony. In May 2007, Conte claimed to again be providing supplements for British Athlete, turned NFL Europa player for the Hamburg Sea Devils, Dwain Chambers.
According to Conte, these nutritional supplements, provided via his company Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning, are perfectly legal.
On December 13, 2007 Conte appeared on Cable News Network before the Mitchell report was officially released. lieutenant was also reported that Federal Bureau of Investigation agents were an additional source of leaks. In 2009, in the aftermath of the investigation, Conte"s book: The Straight Dope on Barry Bonds, Marion and What We Can Do to Save Sports was intended to be co-written with author Nathan Jendrick, and was not published.
The book was never published at all.
Conte is currently working with Zab Judah, and Andre Berto. After prison, he has researched and developed legal-to-use sports supplements.
One writer for one sports website believes that baseball commissioner Bud Selig should hire Conte, someone who has previously circumvented the drug regulations of several sports leagues, to develop a more foolproof drug policy for sports.
