Lawsuit loss could potentially bankrupt cyclist
AUSTIN, Texas — Lance Armstrong is facing the federal government in a legal fight with tens of millions of dollars at stake, and a loss could bankrupt the cyclist who until last year ranked among the wealthiest and most popular athletes in the world.
Armstrong’s best chance at protecting his personal fortune may rest in convincing a jury the government has already earned plenty from him, regardless of whether he cheated to win the Tour de France and lied to cover it up.
Armstrong is being sued by the Justice Department to recover at least the $40 million the U.S. Postal Service paid to sponsor his team, claiming Armstrong was “unjustly enriched” by using steroids and other drugs to win the Tour de France seven times.
Armstrong’s legal team says the benefits the Postal Service reaped from putting its name on Armstrong’s jersey was worth far more than that. The Postal Service commissioned four studies that said the contract was worth more than $100 million in worldwide exposure for the agency at a time it was trying to boost its brand.
Armstrong could still settle the case before going to trial, which likely would not start until 2014.
If it goes to trial, experts say the government will likely have an easy time proving Armstrong committed fraud by violating his contract. But proving financial damages could be far more difficult and the stakes are huge because the False Claims Act allows the government to seek triple damages.
“They are going to have to get creative,” said Dallas attorney Matthew Orwig, a former federal prosecutor who has handled lawsuits filed under the same statute the government is using to pursue Armstrong. “They’ve got to know they’ve got a squishy case on damages.”
Paul Scott, an attorney for Floyd Landis, the former Armstrong teammate who brought the whistle-blower lawsuit and would get a cut of any damages awarded, dismissed the argument that the Postal Service wasn’t damaged.
“It was all a fraud,” Scott said. “U.S. Postal would not have paid a dime if they had known the truth.”
The False Claims Act dates to the Civil War, when the government went after unscrupulous contractors who were providing substandard items to Union troops. Since then, the government has used the law to recover billions of dollars in health care and defense contractor fraud, natural disaster recovery and reconstruction efforts in Iraq.