It’s
been over three years since Lance Armstrong admitted to doping throughout his
career, but the lawsuit between the United States Postal Service (USPS) and
Armstrong continues. The main question that is still unresolved is whether or
not the USPS actually suffered losses due to sponsoring Armstrong with more
than $30 million between 1998 and 2004. If the USPS can prove they experienced
losses due to sponsoring Armstrong and subsequently learning of Armstrong’s
doping, then they will have strong evidence to win the case. On the other hand,
if Armstrong can prove that the USPS didn’t experience any loss, he
will have a better chance at winning the case. How is the dispute resolved? By
hiring expert witnesses at $700 – 900 per hour.
There are several articles on Fraudbytes discussing doping in
professional sports, but is there a way to stop doping? A recent
article on road.cc discusses research that claims it could have caught
Lance Armstrong. The current methods for detecting drugs in an athlete’s system
are extremely sophisticated (i.e., if there was a drop of drugs in an Olympic
sized pool, they would detect that drop). However, they are only able to detect
the drug if it was used in the last 48 hours. According to Yannis Pitsiladis, a
professor of sport and exercise science with a particular interest in genetics,
his new method can detect if the athlete has doped in the past several months
and, potentially, even years.
Every state in the United States has a sex offender registry
that is publicly available for everyone to see in order to identify people who have
been convicted of a sex crime in the past. Could such an approach also prove
effective at lowering financial crime rates? A recent
article in The Wall Street Journal
discusses the creation of a White
Collar Crime Offender Registry in Utah. Utah is the first state to
implement such a registry, making them, according to the article, the “most aggressive jurisdiction in the
country when it comes to publicly shaming financial criminals.” The registry
will list first time offenders of financial crime for five years, second time
offenders for ten years, and third time offenders will never have the option of
being removed. In addition, convicts who fully comply with court orders and pay
their restitutions in full will not be added to the list.
