As unidentified sources leaked that federal investigators are issuing grand jury subpoenas in the doping allegations raised by Floyd Landis, Lance Armstrong says he'll cooperate. He told the New York Times before the start of Stage 10 on Wednesday:
“As long as we have a legitimate and credible and fair investigation I will be happy to co-operate but I'm not going to participate in any kind of witch hunt.”
Meanwhile, some inconsistent statements by Armstrong are throwing into question whether he held an ownership stake in Tailwind Sports. That's the group that owned the cycling team sponsored by the U.S. Postal Service.
Fraud?
Ownership is important because the feds want to find out whether the team was violating UCI doping rules to improve results, therefore gaining more money from the sponsors. That would make it fraud. And the New York Times points out that sponsor US Postal Service is an independent agency of the U.S. government. That's defrauding the U.S. government.
The investigation is said to be targeting the finances of the team sponsored by the US Postal Service. Armstrong won 6 Tours de France victories for that team from 1999 to 2004. Sponsorship changed to the Discovery Channel in 2005, and Armstrong won his 7th. The team itself was owned by Tailwind Sports.
Ownership
In the interview on Wednesday, Armstrong said that he had never was a Tailwinds owner during the Postal Service years.
“It was not my company, I didn't have a position, I didn't have an equity stake, I didn't have a profit stake, I didn't have a seat on the board. I was a rider on the team. I can't be any clearer than that.”
However, back in 2005 he said in a deposition (page 6) that he had a “small interest” in the team, “perhaps 10 percent.” That deposition was taken in November 2005. At the time, Armstrong said he didn't know when he took the ownership, only that it was “before today.”
That deposition was made in an arbitration hearing prompted by SCA promotions challenging a bonus they'd promised for his string of Tour de France victories. SCA got cold feet when a book was published in the UK accusing him of doping. Armstrong ended up getting the bonus.
The New York Times also reports on Armstrong's ties to Capital Sports & Entertainment through its officers. CSE ran the team for Tailwind in 2004 and gained equity in 2007.
Denial
In the interview with Times reporter Juliet Macur, Armstrong felt compelled to remind us of his work for the LiveStrong Foundation that raises money for cancer survivors and research.
“Do the American people feel like this is a good use of their tax dollars? … That’s for them to decide. Like I said, as long as we have a legitimate and credible and fair investigation, we’d be happy to cooperate. But I’m not going to participate in any kind of witch hunt. I’ve done too many good things for too many people.”
He also flatly denied that he ever doped, or encouraged others to dope.
Given the leaks and Armstrong's high profile, this obviously is going to get a lot uglier before it's over.
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