The Hospital Room Incident: Did Lance Armstrong Pay Off Doctors to Remain Silent?

While it has been several months since we posted about the Lance Armstrong investigation (see this link for previous posts), the case against Armstrong continues to grow. A recent article in the Daily Camera discusses what is known as “The Hospital Room Incident.” This article discusses why the U.S. Government subpoenaed his medical records from the Indiana University School of Medicine. Allegations are that Armstrong paid off his doctor to remain silent through a donation to his medical school.

CBS Segment on Livestrong

Here's the video of a CBS segment where Mark was interviewed about Livestrong. The segment aired a little while ago, but this is the first time we've seen it available to view online. Mark's portion is less than half a minute starting around 6:15. Back up another 30 seconds before that to get the context of his comments.

Livestrong, Lance Armstrong and the IRS

Forbes published an article yesterday that discusses the distinct possibility that LiveStrong may be in trouble with the IRS. As it turns out, non-profit organizations are prohibited by law from exerting political influence. In addition, if reports are true that Lance has often taken a cut of the funds that donors thought they were giving to Livestrong, the IRS certainly will want to know more about that behavior too. Here are some excerpts from the Forbes article:

Lance, Livestrong and the UCI

Numerous reports are flooding the internet that the UCI has sustained USADA's decision to strip Lance Armstrong of his seven Tour de France titles making Greg LeMond the only American to ever win the Tour de France. Of course, this comes as no surprise to those who were aware of the plethora of evidence showing Lance to be the biggest sporting fraud in history; the Bernie Madoff of sport.

Last week we read of Livestrong donors asking for their money back. My wife says that given today's news we should be reading soon about Lance wanting his donations to the UCI back too...

Lance Armstrong Investigation: Was LiveStrong Built on the Back of a Fraud?

As I mentioned in the last post, I've been contacted by some LiveStrong donors who want their money back because they believe they donated under false pretenses. You can read about two of these donors on CNN. Here are a few bytes:

Lance Armstrong's Kingdom is Crumbling

 Update: since publishing this post this morning, several other sponsors have dropped Lance Armstrong. This article in The Wall Street Journal lists a bunch...

A few days ago, I received an email from a person who explained that, in 2000, she and her husband had donated $50,000 to the Lance Armstrong Foundation, now LiveStrong. A few years later she initiated a fundraiser that hosted Lance and collected $155,000. She explained that "With the news of Lance's deception, we feel cheated and also resentful that we were used to unknowingly continue the fraud." She said they believe there may be grounds for a class action lawsuit and wondered if there are any attorneys working on LiveStrong litigation due to Lance's fraud. (I'm still trying to find out so please email me if you have information on this.) Today's news reports indicate that this sad story is not an isolated case and that Lance's kingdom is quickly crumbling...

Lance Armstrong Investigation: LiveStrong Gets Involved

Photo from Wall Street Journal

News reports suggest that LiveStrong donors should rest well knowing that their funds given to help fight cancer are being used to lobby Congress to pressure USADA in its investigation of Lance Armstrong.

Today's Wall Street Journal reported that a Congressional staff member has confirmed that "The...Texas-based charity known as Livestrong, sent a lobbyist to Capitol Hill last week to discuss the funding for the agency that has accused the retired cycling champion of cheating to win the Tour de France." Here are more details from the Journal:

Lance Armstrong Investigation: LiveStrong Brought to Light

Outdoor Magazine published an extensive article on Lance Armstrong's LiveStrong Foundation today. I know they have been working on this for a while since the author, Bill Gifford, first contacted me in May 2011. Interestingly, I received several phone calls from investigative reporters around the same time--undoubtedly because they found these posts of interest.

As far as I can tell, Gifford's article is the first one to hit the press. His article notes why this may be the case by saying:

At least two other major publications have done serious reporting on Livestrong—that is, they started to. In both cases, Livestrong lawyers succeeded in shutting down the stories before they were published. They applied the same pressures to Outside, blitzing my editors with pissed-off e-mails, phone calls, and, eventually, a five-page letter from general counsel Mona Patel complaining about “Mr. Gifford’s conduct, professionalism, and method of reporting.” One of my crimes was a failed attempt to get a source to talk off the record, an ordinary journalistic practice. All of which now makes me wonder if I missed something. 

I recommend reading the article if you're interested in LiveStrong and Lance. For those who want to get a flavor of the article, here are a few highlights that summarize the main conclusions:

Lance Armstrong Investigation: Odds and Ends

In today's news, various sources are reporting that Lance's lawyers are demanding an on-air apology from 60 Minutes. I personally am not holding my breath...

Well, aside from that news, I have had questions about the Lance Armstrong investigation asked to me from some friends and thought I'd document my thoughts to these questions. Some of you may have had similar questions or may hear similar questions as the public starts hearing more about the investigation. For example, a friend in my neighborhood asked me "How could he be guilty when he was tested so many times?" My response...

What does LiveStrong and Three Cups of Tea have in Common?

A more direct question might be whether Lance Armstrong's charitable foundation, LiveStrong, is managed like Greg Mortenson, author of "Three Cups of Tea" is managing his charity, The Central Asia Institute (CAI). Mortenson became famous and influential when he published his inspiring stories about how he came to dedicate his life to helping educate women in Afghanistan and Pakistan in "Three Cups of Tea" and its sequel, "Stones Into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan." However, yesterday Mortenson was accused of committing fraud to create his initial success and lying about how he has used donations given to his charity to help educate the poor in these countries. According to a 60 Minutes report, Mortenson has been using his charity as a tool for self promotion and dipping into the piggy bank. In addition...