Federal Government Sues Lance Armstrong
Lance Armstrong’s legal woes growing out of his admission that he used performance enhancing drugs while winning the Tour de France and other races continue to mount:
Lance Armstrong violated his contract with the U.S. Postal Service and “unjustly enriched” himself by cheating to win Tour de France titles, the Justice Department argued in a lawsuit against the cyclist filed on Tuesday.
The government announced in February it would join a federal whistle-blower lawsuit against Armstrong brought by the troubled athlete’s former teammate Floyd Landis. Tuesday marked the deadline to file a formal complaint.
“Riders on the USPS-sponsored team, including Armstrong, knowingly caused material violations of the sponsorship agreements by regularly and systematically employing banned substances and methods to enhance their performance,” the complaint says.
“Defendants were unjustly enriched to the extent of the payments and other benefits they received from the USPS, either directly or indirectly,” the suit alleges.
An Armstrong attorney called the lawsuit “opportunistic and insincere” and said the Postal Service made money off the cyclist. “The U.S. Postal Service benefited tremendously from its sponsorship of the cycling team…The USPS was never the victim of fraud. Lance Armstrong rode his heart out for the USPS team, and gave the brand tremendous exposure during the sponsorship years,” Armstrong lawyer Elliot Peters said in a statement.
From 1998 to 2004 the Postal Service paid about $40 million to sponsor the team for which Armstrong won six of his seven Tour victories. In that same period the USPS paid Armstrong $17 million, according to the filing.
(…)
The government must make the case that the Postal Service was not only defrauded, but also somehow damaged.
This may be a tough case for the government to prove, not so much because of the fraud angle, but because it may be difficult to establish how the USPS was damaged by all of this. Nonetheless, this is yet another indication that Armstrong’s troubles are far from over.
Here’s the Complaint:
U.S. ex rel Landis v. Tailwind Sports et al Complaint by dmataconis
I have just as many Tour de France wins as Armstrong.
And I have more balls.
Just sayin’
Yet you can’t seem to pick on him for something other than surviving a bout of cancer.
[Note: before anybody goes apeshit, I’m just having a little fun, as were you.]
I’m puzzled by this as well. To the extent the Postal Service was seeking anything from paying Lance Armstrong, it was massive publicity. They got it. Indeed, his use of PEDs quite likely helped him win and thus increase said publicity. If anything, they got more than they bargained for. Additionally, I can’t recall anyone coming out and condemning the Postal Service for his PED use, so it’s not like there was subsequent negative publicity that impacted the sale of stamps or caused people to ship with UPS.
@Franklin:
Armstrong lied and then bullied and threatened several people – including witnesses in a federal suit. He deserves a criminal, not a civil suit.
@C. Clavin: Yes but does your mail run on time?
@Franklin: C. Clavin was just going below the belt. As it were.