Lance Armstrong faces financial ruin as he fails to block £80m US government lawsuit

Uneasy rider: Last night, a judge paved the way for Lance Armstrong to stand trial seven years after the case was launched by former team-mate Floyd Landis
AFP/Getty Images

Lance Armstrong faces potential financial ruin after failing in his bid to block a $100million lawsuit by the US government against him and his former team.

Last night, a federal judge paved the way for Armstrong to stand trial seven years after the case was launched by former team-mate Floyd Landis. Armstrong’s net worth was estimated at $125m (£100m) at its peak but he is already thought to have shelled out £8m in damages and settlements.

A litany of court cases emerged in the wake of his admission in an interview with Oprah Winfrey in January 2013 that he had taken performance-enhancing drugs en route to his seven Tour de France victories, which have since been erased from the record books.

The most devastating case centres on the US Postal Service’s sponsorship deal to Armstrong’s team, which was operated by the now defunct Tailwind Sports, to the tune of £26m from 2000 and 2004. Armstrong is believed to have netted £11m of that money.

Seven years ago, the case was brought under a federal law, the False Claims Act, by Landis, with the Justice Department joining a month after Armstrong’s televised admission of guilt.

USPS argues that it had been defrauded by Armstrong for “actively concealing the team’s violations of the agreements’ anti-doping provisions”.

And Postmaster General William Henderson claimed in a conversation ahead of renewing the sponsorship deal in 2000 that “Lance railed… about the French and their b******t charges and that they were just out to get him because an American was winning the Tour”. If successful when the case goes to trial, Landis and the US government could wrest back triple the sponsorship sum for damages, the worst case scenario being for Armstrong that he has to foot the bill.

Armstrong had already put his £6m Austin home on the market last year as he began to feel the pinch following his admission, with the loss his sponsorship deals. Should Landis and the US government win the case, Landis, who was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France victory after testing positive for testosterone, could net as much as 25 per cent of the money. Landis’ lawyer Paul D Scott said “the finish line for Mr Armstrong… is fast approaching”.

Landis was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France victory after testing positive for testosterone
AFP/Getty Images

Armstrong looks on course for a date with judge and jury after US District Judge Christopher Cooper argued against the Texan’s attempt to block the trial. “Giving Armstrong ‘credit’ for the benefits he delivered while using (performance-enhancing drugs) could be viewed as an unjust reward for having successfully concealed his doping for so long,” wrote Cooper in his ruling.

“But disregarding the benefits USPS received from the sponsorship could bestow the government with an undeserved windfall. The same could be said of Landis, whose role in this entire affair some would view as less than pure.”

Armstrong had argued that the media exposure to USPS of the deal had been well in excess of $100m with the cyclist’s lawyer Elliot Peters claiming it was a case Landis and the government “cannot win”. “There is no evidence of any quantifiable financial harm,” he said.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in