The beleaguered Lance Armstrong, is concerned that he maybe facing financial ruin, if the current federal lawsuit against him, comes to bear.
In 2010, ex-teammate, Floyd Landis, filed a “whistleblower” lawsuit against Lance Armstrong, alleging manipulation and the cover-up of wide-spread “doping” during his tenure with the US Postal Service Team. The US Justice Department later enjoined in Landis’ suit, in hopes of recouping the sponsorship funds paid to Armstrong and his team, after they learned he was in violation of their anti-doping agreement.
If he loses, the case could cost Armstrong as much as $100 million, with his former teammate receiving one third of the damages for initiating the case.
In a recent interview with AFP journalists at his home in Aspen, Armstrong explained he will face “financial ruin” should he lose the case.
“I mean, the whistleblower case is a $100 million case. If I lost, we would not be sitting at this table anymore,” Armstrong said according to AFP. “We wouldn’t be sitting in this home anymore. We wouldn’t be sitting in any home. I don’t have $100 million.
“We like our case is all I will say. I’m not going to jinx myself. But I don’t know. How do you guys see it? Say the jury says: ‘Pay up $100 million.’ Floyd Landis gets $33 million. Is everybody at this jury happy with that? I would think what everybody thinks — there’s no logic to that.”
In February, Armstrong and former US Postal Service team owners, Tailwind Sports, were ordered to pay $10 million to SCA Promotions, a Texas firm that underwrote a $5 million bonus awarded after his 2004 Tour de France victory.
During his interview, Armstrong admitted he behaved like “a complete dick” for most of his career.
“I’m not going to be sorry for certain things,” Armstrong said. “I’m going to be sorry for that person who was a believer, who was a fan, who supported me, who defended me, and ended up looking like a fool. I need to really be contrite and sorry about that. And I am. I’m more worried about Mary-Jane in Ohio, and Doug in Pennsylvania, or Liam in Birmingham, or wherever.
“Listen, if I could walk the world and face-to-face apologize, I would.”
Back in January 2013, Armstrong openly admitted to doping during a televised interview with Oprah Winfrey, while also claiming he had lost $75 million of sponsorship and endorsement deals as a result of his confession.
According to reports, the US Anti-Doping Agency’s (USADA) CEO, Travis Tygart, repeatedly offered Armstrong opportunities to reduce his life ban from the sport, in exchange for information that would have hopefully exposed the atmosphere of lax and leniency that characterized the sports’ hierarchy. But, in Armstrong’s words, he had “nothing new” to report.
“At this point, after a federal investigation, a criminal investigation, a civil investigation, a federal agency, the threat of perjury and jail, an anti-doping agency threatening lifetime bans, books…We have got it all. Trust me, it’s all there,” Armstrong added.
Armstrong added, that he hoped the recently formed Cycling Independent Reform Committee’s (CIRC) report into cycling’s doping culture, would facilitate progressive dialogue that would serve to move the sport forward.
“What I want, and I had hoped the recent CIRC report would achieve this – but what I hoped that would achieve was that it would almost resemble some sort of adult conversation where we all just go: ‘All right. Stop. This is really what happened. And this is who was involved and this is the line we are going to draw in the sand and this is where we are going to move forward.’ But that didn’t happen,” he said.
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