U.S. to Join Suit Against Armstrong

[Vientomas]

The U.S. Department of Justice has decided to join a whistleblower lawsuit against former cyclist Lance Armstrong, according to people briefed on the matter.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324503204578320143049680124.html?m od=WSJ_latestheadlines

[saab2000]

Maybe when he pays back the money he will owe the national debt crisis will be solved.

[Hls2k6]

Another about face... While I think this is good news, the DOJ is the only one who comes off looking even worse in this thing than Lance.

[Dave B]

Here is what I don't understand. Why are they just after Lance? While he has the deepest pockets, there were toehr riders who doped and took money. Are they not liable to the US in this or is their "deal" keeping them from any harm?

the USPS did profit or extend their profits as a result of Lance's wins. If lance has to pay money, does it go to USPS? If they profitted why are they deserving of more money? No judgement on my end, just curious who gets returned moneies and why is it Lance only who seems to be the one who writes checks?

[CunegoFan]

Time to schedule another interview with Oprah to talk about his new $75 million day.

[don compton]

Here is what I don't understand. Why are they just after Lance? While he has the deepest pockets, there were toehr riders who doped and took money. Are they not liable to the US in this or is their "deal" keeping them from any harm?

the USPS did profit or extend their profits as a result of Lance's wins. If lance has to pay money, does it go to USPS? If they profitted why are they deserving of more money? No judgement on my end, just curious who gets returned moneies and why is it Lance only who seems to be the one who writes checks?
There going after Wiesel and other partners.

[pbarry]

Here is what I don't understand. Why are they just after Lance? While he has the deepest pockets, there were toehr riders who doped and took money. Are they not liable to the US in this or is their "deal" keeping them from any harm?

the USPS did profit or extend their profits as a result of Lance's wins. If lance has to pay money, does it go to USPS? If they profitted why are they deserving of more money? No judgement on my end, just curious who gets returned moneies and why is it Lance only who seems to be the one who writes checks?

They are charging LA, Thom Weisel and LA's agent Stapleton. I believe Lance was a part owner, with Weisel being the majority owner, so they signed the contracts with USPS. No other team was sponsored by a government entity, so that's why the Postal Service Team is different, and why this is going forward.

AFAIK, LA has yet to write one check to anyone whom he's tangled with legally. He's going to get carpel tunnel syndrome pretty quickly now.

[BumbleBeeDave]

This should be interesting.

BBD

[pbarry]

This should be interesting.

BBD

For sure. DOJ would not have signed on if there was any hint in all of their investigation that they would not prevail.

[katematt]

It could come to pass that at the end of the day good Ole Floyd will end up richer than Lance.

Who da thunk.

[BumbleBeeDave]

For sure. DOJ would not have signed on if there was any hint in all of their investigation that they would not prevail.

I would think their standard for this time around would be even higher after the controversy surroundings Birotte's earlier decision. If they joined this suit and did not succeed, it would be a huge PR headache for Holder and others.

I believe Landis is under court order to repay people HE took money from fraudulently for his defense. I can't imagine DOJ would not have some court order in effect forcing him to apply any awards from this case to those obligations. I don't recall exactly how much he was ordered to repay, but I'm betting if this turns into a winner for him (and big loser for Lance) that Floyd will still have a tidy sum left over.

BBD

[torquer]

It could come to pass that at the end of the day good Ole Floyd will end up richer than Lance.
From the VeloNews story on this:
"If Landis were to win the suit, he could stand to gain a percentage, up to 25 percent, of three times what the Postal Service spent — roughly $90 million. With the U.S. Department of Justice intervening, Landis would be entitled to up to 15-25 percent of any money the government recovered, rather than 25-30 percent if he pursues the case without the government’s resources."

This is the part of this whole saga that sticks in my craw: Landis doped, got caught, lied through his teeth about it (even asking us for money for his defense) and now has a prospective $22MM payday?

Rather than "whistleblower," how about we call this a "jailhouse snitch" suit?

[GregL]

Much like Al Capone being convicted of tax evasion, this is how Armstrong will ultimately pay restitution for his ill-gotten gains. More importantly, the money man behind the scheme (Weisel) is a defendant in the suit. If you want to clean house, you have to go all the way to the top. It would be nice if this would drag down Verbruggen and McQuaid too, but only time will tell for those two.

Sadly, I suspect (although I have no legal basis for this opinion) that a settlement will be reached prior to a court date. Instead of testimony in a court of law, we'll see $$ change hands without an admission of guilt. Weisel and his cronies don't want to air their dirty laundry in a courtroom.

- Greg

[pbarry]

Thread drift, or maybe not: Eddie B. was the Subaru-Montgomery coach, Weisel was the team co-owner, Lance was an up and coming rider on the squad.
1990-92 or so.

[CunegoFan]

From the VeloNews story on this:
"If Landis were to win the suit, he could stand to gain a percentage, up to 25 percent, of three times what the Postal Service spent — roughly $90 million. With the U.S. Department of Justice intervening, Landis would be entitled to up to 15-25 percent of any money the government recovered, rather than 25-30 percent if he pursues the case without the government’s resources."

This is the part of this whole saga that sticks in my craw: Landis doped, got caught, lied through his teeth about it (even asking us for money for his defense) and now has a prospective $22MM payday?

Rather than "whistleblower," how about we call this a "jailhouse snitch" suit?

Sounds fair to me. The government gets $70M and Landis gets $20M. The gov is up $40M over what they paid to USPS. They turn a profit and Landis gets a payday that will be used to repay those dumb enoug to give to the Floyd Fairness Fund. Everyone wins.

I bet Armstrong is wishing he had given Landis a spot on Radio Shack instead of making fun of him at the Tour of the Gila.

[PQJ]

I bet Armstrong is wishing he had given Landis a spot on Radio Shack instead of making fun of him at the Tour of the Gila.

Yup. Probably the biggest my-dicks-bigger-than-your-dick faux pas in the history of dick competitions.

[torquer]

Sounds fair to me. The government gets $70M and Landis gets $20M. The gov is up $40M over what they paid to USPS. They turn a profit and Landis gets a payday that will be used to repay those dumb enoug to give to the Floyd Fairness Fund. Everyone wins.
Fairness is a highly subjective term. First some judge or jury will need to determine whether the USPS was defrauded, which might be tough considering their own report that they got substantial value for their sponsorship money. (Sorry to quote LA's legal team on this, but they do have a point.)

If Weisel/Stapleton/LA/et al do have to pay out, then I agree repayment of those duped by the Fraud Fairness Fund would be fair. (Irony here that Weisel was one of the originators of this FFF! So he gets his own money back?) But they don't get triple damages, like Froyd. He'll still come away with a tidy nestegg.

Tough to see the fairness in rewarding one of the conspirators just because he was the first to drop a dime on the others. Not that I think this isn't the way criminal justice works in the real world, either.

[cash05458]

There's a Floyd Fairness Fund?!!! I hadn't heard that...where can I send Floyd money?

[torquer]

Care of Michael Ball?
http://bp2.blogger.com/_7PYLvbtyS04/SAq4vYD1RWI/AAAAAAAACzM/HDX0DmOIxbc/s400/RRMON_076_PM6D_0012.jpg

[Vientomas]

There's a Floyd Fairness Fund?!!! I hadn't heard that...where can I send Floyd money?

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/floyd-fairness-fund-launched-53299342.html

[Pete Mckeon]

By Annys Shin, Friday, February 22, 2:21 PM

The Justice Department has decided to join a whistleblower lawsuit against disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong, a lawyer for Armstrong, Robert Luskin, said Friday.

The move, which could happen as early as Friday, increases the odds Armstrong may have to forfeit tens of millions of dollars paid out by team sponsor, the U.S. Postal Service.
:mad:
The lawsuit, filed in 2010 by former teammate Floyd Landis on behalf of the Postal Service, alleges Armstrong defrauded the government by using taxpayer dollars to buy performance enhancing drugs used to win seven Tour de France titles between 1999 and 2005. Armstrong has admitted to doping and that he bullied his teammates into using banned substances as well.

Until now, his admission has not resulted in serious financial consequences. He is estimated to be worth $125 million.

The Landis lawsuit, filed under the federal False Claims Act, poses a bigger threat to Armstrong’s wealth because it triples financial damages. The case has been kept under seal while the Justice Department decided whether to join it.

The government is choosing to intervene in the lawsuit after settlement negotiations with Armstrong stalled over the extent of damages the postal service suffered as a result of the alleged fraud, an Armstrong spokesman said.

Armstrong’s camp has argued that the postal service sustained little or no damage because it got a 300 percent return for its sponsorship of the pro cycling team. The postal spent at least $31 million over four years to support the team.

“Lance and his representatives worked constructively over these last weeks with federal lawyers to resolve this case fairly, but those talks failed because we disagree about whether the Postal Service was damaged,” according to a statement issued by his spokesman, Mark Fabiani. “The Postal’s Service’s own studies show that the it reaped big rewards from its sponsorship -- with benefits totaling more than $100 million.”

The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) had lobbied the Justice Department to join the lawsuit.

USADA officials had been in separate negotiations with Armstrong to get him to reveal more details of doping in the sport in exchange for a possible reduction in the length of time he is banned from competition. The agency has already banned him from the sport for life and stripped him of his Tour de France titles.

But on Wednesday, Armstrong refused for a second time to testify under oath before the USADA.

After denying doping accusations for years, Armstrong in January admitted to using performance enhancing drugs in a televised two-part interview with Oprah Winfrey.

In that interview, Armstrong said he and his teammates could not have won the Tour without relying on a mix of EPO, transfusions, human growth hormone and testosterone.

He told Winfrey that at the time he didn’t see it as cheating because doping was so widespread in cycling.

“I viewed it as a level playing field,” he said.


Ann Miramow and Peter Finn contributed to this report.

[dekindy]

They say what goes around comes around, or something like that. Mr. Lance Armstrong inflicted a world of hurt on folks with his lawsuits. He is going to receive that tenfold when he feels the weight and resources of the federal government and others thrown against him in court. If you think the ending so far has been unhappy you have not seen anything yet.

[Anarchist]

Here is what I don't understand. Why are they just after Lance? While he has the deepest pockets, there were toehr riders who doped and took money. Are they not liable to the US in this or is their "deal" keeping them from any harm?

the USPS did profit or extend their profits as a result of Lance's wins. If lance has to pay money, does it go to USPS? If they profitted why are they deserving of more money? No judgement on my end, just curious who gets returned moneies and why is it Lance only who seems to be the one who writes checks?

The lazy for the press to report the story is that they Re going after Lance Armstrong, and that headline gets read.

The story gets read a lot less if it says that the US government is suing Tailwind Sports and CS&E.

[Anarchist]

Sounds fair to me. The government gets $70M and Landis gets $20M. The gov is up $40M over what they paid to USPS. They turn a profit and Landis gets a payday that will be used to repay those dumb enoug to give to the Floyd Fairness Fund. Everyone wins.

I bet Armstrong is wishing he had given Landis a spot on Radio Shack instead of making fun of him at the Tour of the Gila.

Yu do know who most of the contributors were to the Floyd Fairness Fund??

The biggest contributors were also shareholders in Tailwind and members of the Millionaire's Club that was set up by Weisel.

[54ny77]

dude's plumped up since being off the bike, fighting lawsuits, etc.

http://www.freakingnews.com/pictures/90500/Fat-Lance-Armstrong--90643.jpg