Lance Armstrong Continues To Pay, May Face Perjury And Insurance Fraud Charges
After being stripped of his seven Tour De France titles, resigning his chairmanship of the cancer charity he founded, being dumped by sponsors left and right, losing his credibility and reputation that came along with his success, what more could go wrong for Lance Armstrong? The answer to that question is that Armstrong may face charges of perjury, and possibly insurance fraud.
The USADA (United States Doping Agency) has made several accusations against Armstrong, including a statement released that Armstrong was the “ringleader of the biggest doping conspiracy in sporting history". In addition, SCA Promotions Inc., the Dallas-based company that agreed to pay Armstrong and his company Tailwind Sports a promotional bonus of $12,000,000 for winning his sixth Tour De France, is seeking repayment of those monies after allegations of Armstrong’s doping scandal began to come to light. Armstrong sued SCA in an effort to collect money he believed was owed to him.
SCA's position is Armstrong knew that the performance-enhancing drug related pretenses under which he won deemed him ineligible to receive any money.
In his video deposition, Armstrong was made aware that penalties of perjury attached to his deposition just like they would in any deposition or court hearing where a witness testifies.In the lawsuit filed by Armstrong, SCA settled with Armstrong for $5 million along with $2.5 million in interest and legal fees.
With new evidence uncovered by the USADA, SCA may now seek to recoup the $7.5 million as well as any other payments made to the cyclist since he technically never won the seven Tour De France titles.
Charges of perjury now hang over Armstrong’s head after testifying under oath that he did not dope. It is up in the air as to whether or not federal prosecutors will re-open the criminal investigation into Armstrong’s doping after it was dropped back in February.
Armstrong had a contract with SCA that was backed by an insurance company who ultimately assumed the risk of insuring him. In their eyes, Lance Armstrong cheated. They believe he took performance-enhancing drugs, lied to them about it, unlawfully collected money he was not entitled to, and thus, committed insurance fraud.
The lesson in all of this is quite simple: never lie to an insurance company. It certainly appears that Armstrong was not being truthful in his deposition. Insurance companies take that sort of thing very seriously.
