Posted on 04/23/2013 5:36:35 PM PDT by jazusamo
The Department of Justice said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that cyclist Lance Armstrong was "unjustly enriched" while he used steroids to win multiple Tour de France titles.
In the formal complaint, the Justice Department said they would seek triple damages against Armstrong, who admitted earlier this year that he doped to win his seven straight titles. The U.S. Postal Service paid some $40 million to appear as the title sponsor of Armstrong's team during six of those seven races.
"Defendants were unjustly enriched to the extent of the payments and other benefits they received from the USPS, either directly or indirectly," the complaint said, according to the Associated Press .
The Justice Department had previously announced its intention to join the lawsuit against Armstrong, brought by ex-teammate Floyd Landis. According to the government, Armstrong and his managers repeatedly insisted that the cyclist was not using steroids while being sponsored by USPS.
“The Postal Service has now seen its sponsorship unfairly associated with what has been described as ‘the most sophisticated, professionalized, and successful doping program that sport has ever seen,’" U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen said at the time.
"This lawsuit is designed to help the Postal Service recoup the tens of millions of dollars it paid out to the Tailwind cycling team based on years of broken promises. In today’s economic climate, the U.S. Postal Service is simply not in a position to allow Lance Armstrong or any of the other defendants to walk away with the tens of millions of dollars they illegitimately procured.”
The government needs to prove not only that Armstrong deceived them, but that the Postal Service was damaged by Armstrong's cheating.
Armstrong has been disqualified of all his competitive results dating back to August, 1998, and banned from life from competitive cycling.
Armstrong is also facing lawsuits from a Texas promotional company and the Sunday Times, a British newspaper that paid Armstrong half a million dollars to settle a libel lawsuit after reporting he had taken steroids.
Now, years later when USPS is broke and wanting to cancel Saturday service it's a little hard to see how Lance's confession can besmirch their reputation.
“C’mon. The guy practically invented jazz. Cut him a break”
And then he was the first man to ride a bike on the moon.
it is a federal crime to commit a federal crime
Just peachy. Some doofus does steroids, states legalize weed, and the mooslims blowus up. Priorities?
Excellent summary
Soooo PHYSICAL Voter intimidation by Islamic a-holes, no problems.
Some dude wins a bike race in another country, GET HIM!
I say this far too often, I live in the Twilight Zone.
It’s a rip I tell ya, a rip. lol
Look, Eric Holder’s motives may be bad, but does that mean that conservatives should oppose the Justice Department’s doing the right thing? Lance Armstrong is a liar, a user, a fraud. That the only thing Eric Holder dislikes about him may be that he is white doesn’t mean conservatives should rally around him.
How about a petition to add Barry Bonds to the witch hunt?
This is an impossible burden for the government to meet. If I was the judge, this suit would be tossed upon the filing of a defendants motion for summary judgment.
Where do I sue to get back the tax dollars the broke postal service wasted sponsoring a bicycle team?
Hopefully the judge will do just that, it’ll save taxpayers a lot of money.
Simply lying is not perjury unless it is under oath subject to a perjury charge. There is also the fact that he never failed a drug test.
Prosecuting Roger Clemens for lying to Congress didn't turn out so well with the DoJ. did it?
I’m thinking about 95 Senators and about anyone who had “US Secretary of...” in their past titles were probably “unjustifiably enriched” as well.
I hope Armstrong ends his days penniless under a bridge fighting stray dogs for food scraps.
I hear ya and have no sympathy for him but this lawsuit is a waste of time and money.
I do not rally around him, but I am sick of the witch hunt, especially when Zero's regime is so full of far more egregious felons, including Holder and Zero. Armstrong never had anyone killed to further his career or agenda.
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