The Real Winners in the Lance Armstrong Investigation: His Attorneys

Photo taken from Forbes.com

In most fraud cases, the real winners are the attorneys. This is definitely looking to be the case  with Lance Armstrong since he is getting sued left and right these days. Not only has the US Justice Department joined in Floyd Landis's suit claiming Lance defrauded the US Postal Service but numerous other lawsuits and legal actions are being filed daily. While the suit by the US Postal Service could, in theory, add up to over $100 million, these other suits could also add up to real money too, especially when you consider all the legal fees his attorneys must be charging him. For example, I learned about the following two new lawsuits today...

First, ABC News Radio reported that another insurer, besides SCA Promotions, is suing Lance for $3 million. Apparently, Acceptance Insurance paid Lance's bonuses from 1999-2001 and they have now decided they want their money back. Here is a short fraudbyte from the article online that explains the reason Acceptance has decided to file suit now...

What the cyclist did in the (Oprah Winfrey) interview that made it possible to fight such an old matter was admitting "fraudulent concealment" -- that he threatened and bullied to such an extent that Acceptance could not have known the truth in a timely fashion. 

Money aside, Acceptance plans to depose Armstrong.  He's also facing the prospect of being deposed in a slew of other pending cases, all of which he has tried and failed to settle out of court.

The second lawsuit that came out today is a class action suit against a company that markets energy supplements. Like most, if not all, energy supplements, this one has little to no evidence that it makes any difference but it was marketed as Lance's secret weapon! Unfortunately, the real secret weapons were EPO, HgH, testosterone, blood transfusions and maybe even some experimental drugs like HemAssist too!

The company, FRS Co, took off a few years ago when Lance decided to become its spokesman. He also invested in the company and was on the Board of Directors. According to Bloomberg, a class action lawsuit was filed in California accusing FRS of false advertising. Here is a fraudbyte that summarizes the complaint against the company:

Armstrong in FRS’s television advertisements claimed that FRS’s energy and health supplements were Armstrong’s “secret weapon”... Consumers wouldn’t have bought FRS products, or would have paid less for them, if it hadn’t been for the misleading ads, according to the complaint.

It looks like Lance's attorneys have enough legal work to keep them busy for many years to come. So far, it doesn't sound like those suing him are very interested in settling out of court. My guess is that if he ends up going to court, we will see him exercise his Fifth Amendment rights a lot.

In addition, I'm still waiting to hear if the Justice Department will pursue a criminal case against Lance. Recent reports suggest that they are considering charging him with witness intimidation and obstruction of justice. If so, it may be that Lance's attorneys will be working on his long list of civil litigation while Lance is behind bars...

Some say this is karma others say justice. I'm not ready to commit either karma or justice since reports are that Lance still has over $100 million in assets gained through his fraud. More importantly, before justice will be served, the real victims like the Andreus, LeMonds, David Walsh, Emma O'Reilly and many others who he tried to destroy will need to be made whole. And what about the cyclists who didn't want to dope so they quit pursuing their dream and are now working in some minimum wage job...

Unfortunately, our legal system is not likely to come close to righting those wrongs...