My Analysis of the Lance Armstrong-Oprah Winfrey Interview

Photo taken from WSJ.com

I was traveling last night and was unable to watch the interview last night but I read some articles on what happened in Lance Armstrong's interview by Oprah Winfrey including one that gives all his responses on the Wall Street Journal. It's interesting reading for sure. Here are some thoughts:

Feds Joining Suit Against Lance Armstrong

CBS News reported yesterday that the federal government is considering joining in Floyd Landis's lawsuit against Lance Armstrong which alleges that he defrauded the government due to his doping while receiving $30 million in sponsorship funds from the US Postal Service. My understanding is that the government could receive treble damages for this lawsuit which would amount to $90 million. Lance would not be the only one to be hurt by this.

A tweet this afternoon by CBS News says that they have learned that Lance offered to settle with the government for $5 million and that he offered to be a cooperating witness in a federal investigation. The tweet claims that the Department of Justice turned down both offers.

If this is true, it suggests that the federal government will be joining in the lawsuit against Lance and they expect to go for significantly more than $5 million. The saga continues...

WADA Says Lance is not in Charge!

Just when Lance Armstrong probably was hoping he could show he is cooperating with USADA and WADA to get them to cut him some slack, WADA let's him know that he isn't in charge! Check it out at SportsIllustrated.com. Here is the heart of it:

Will Lance's Confession be Anticlimactic?

I've been thinking that saying Lance's confession will be anticlimactic will be a major understatement. I had decided that I won't even try to watch it come out live because it seems like a waste of time. However, yesterday, the NY Times published an article suggesting that Lance Armstrong's confession may be interesting in that it could involve testifying against many top-level officials in cycling such as Hein Verbruggen and Pat McQuaid of the UCI and Lance's former partner at Tailwind Sports, Thom Weisel. Here are some key excerpts from the Times article:

Questions for Oprah to Ask Lance

We've all been hearing that Lance Armstrong is set to finally admit to doping and he has picked Oprah Winfrey to interview him when he admits it. NY Daily News published an article with questions that Betsy Andreu would like Oprah Winfrey to ask Lance Armstrong when Oprah interviews him at his Austin mansion on Monday. Betsy has some doozies that Oprah is sure to never ask. You can bet that if there was even a chance that Oprah would ask some of these questions, Lance would never agree to be interviewed by her. Here are Betsy's questions followed by two of my own...

Lance Armstrong Allegedly Bribed USADA

60 Minutes is going to air a segment on Lance Armstrong on Wednesday, January 9th, at 10 pm Eastern. The CBS News website states that they will report that someone representing Lance offered USADA a $250,000 "donation" in 2004. Travis Tygart, USADA CEO, is quoted as saying "We had no hesitation in rejecting that offer."

I suppose the truth about Lance will trickle out for years to come...It definitely makes a good case study for anyone out there teaching about fraud, corruption and organized crime. It makes me wonder if Lance's real name ends in Gambino or Bonanno...Maybe Armstrongo...

Lance May Admit He Doped

If this report is accurate, I will have to eat my words. I never thought Lance Armstrong would be able to do a complete 180 and admit to doping.  I even predicted he would go to his grave denying. However, according to the NY Times, he is considering confessing. Why would he do this now you ask? Here is what a Sports Illustrated blog has to say...

Opportunistic Fraud: Newtown Tragedy

This probably shouldn't come as a surprise to regular readers of this blog, but it didn't take long for someone to attempt to exploit the Newton tragedy for her own gain:

Woman Posed as Newtown Victim's Aunt in Fraud Scheme (NYT)