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.

Lance Armstrong Investigation: Can A Tiger Change Its Stripes?

It has been about a year and a half since Lance Armstrong publicly admitted to doping.  In this article, Armstrong tells his side of the story and in the second installment, victims of Armstrong's lies tell their stories.

In the article, Armstrong tells about the slippery slope that he found himself on.  All of the fraud and issues that have come to light were spawned from one lie: the refusal to tell the truth about doping.  Regarding his adamant denials of ever doping, Armstrong reportedly said:

"I was good at playing the part," he admits now. "After the 850th time, it's not like I'm going to say, 'Matt, you seem like a nice guy, I'm going to be honest with you.' Once you say 'no' you have to keep saying 'no.'

"If this stuff hadn't taken place with the federal investigation, I'd probably still be saying 'no' with the same conviction and tone as before. But that gig is up."

Lance Armstrong Investigation: I can't believe it's come to this....

Here we are, nearly three and a half years after Floyd Landis's first confession came out and I posted that I was 99.9% confident that pro cyclists had been doping for the past 15-20 years. I ended that first post by saying "Sadly, what would be surprising to me is if someone who is dominating pro cycling such as Alberto Contador was actually not doping!" Of course, soon after that, Alberto failed a doping test in the Tour de France and was suspended from racing.

Since that first post, there have been many posts to follow (this makes number 150 with the label of Lance Armstrong Investigation) and

Lance Armstrong Investigation: Betsy Andreu & Bill Bock Interviews

http://bit.ly/13f0ROw

This short video discusses some aspects of the fraud in pro cycling that was perpetuated by Lance Armstrong. Betsy Andreu and Bill Bock (USADA General Counsel) spoke at UT Austin recently and this video was produced. They speak of omertà, truth, and how one person with moral courage can make a difference. Check it out, it's worth the four minutes...

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:

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...

Heroes in the Lance Armstrong Investigation

Emma O'Reilly

There are a few heroes that paid a substantial price in the fight for truth in the Lance Armstrong investigation. For example, Emma O'Reilly, Lance's former soigneur, was one of the first to tell others that she knew Lance was doping. Emma spoke up nearly a decade ago and told her story. She paid a price for her honesty as Lance sued her for libel and persecuted her ruthlessly. In her words:  Lance tried to make her life hell. Emma paid a big price for telling her story. Yes, she was paid by a book author to tell it but without her story, it's possible many other stories would not have come out.

Lance Armstrong Investigation: A confession and more

Here's the latest press worth reading on the Lance Armstrong investigation. First, Lance finally came as clean as he's going to come in this editorial published by the ONN. Additionally, the LA Times tells it like it is in this editorial titled "Lance Armstrong Can't Get Cheating Out of His System." This isn't too surprising though given that it's been in his system for a long, long time...

This is almost as good as the Lance Armstrong press gets this week. These two publications get special kudos for not buying into the shoot the messenger mantra of criticizing and demonizing USADA. Also, they earned my praise for not going along with the weak-minded babble that people like Rick Reilly and Phil Liggett have been spewing this past week. Here's why I say this.

The guy cheated. He broke the rules and is being disciplined by the organization that he contracted with when he purchased his license to be a bike racer. He signed his license and in doing so, he agreed to follow the rules and be subject to the processes of WADA and, by delegation, USADA. Sure, he has done some good things in his life but that doesn't change the fact that he is the biggest sports fraud in history. 

In addition, to glorify him while ignoring his mistakes is to condone the cruel things he did to the people who tried to stop him from committing his fraud including Greg LeMond, Frankie and Betsy Andreu, Emma O'Reilly and Mike Andersen, among others...

Let's not forget them and the injustices they have experienced because Lance was, and still is, too weak to admit that he cheated...

Lance Armstrong Investigation: Words of Wisdom from Betsy Andreu

Photo from Bicycling.com

If you have any interest in fraud, truth and ethics, you have to read this short interview of Betsy Andreu in Bicycling Magazine. If you are a cyclist and have interest in fraud, truth and ethics, this interview is a gem!
Betsy and Frankie Andreu have paid a huge personal price, in terms of the economics of this world, for fearlessly telling the truth. Here are a few of the more profound quotes...

Lance Armstrong Investigation: Lifetime Bans and Real Heroes

While Lance Armstrong is fighting USADA to try to stop them from taking away his seven Tour de France titles, three of those who have been accused with Lance as being part of a doping conspiracy have, apparently, quietly conceded to receive lifetime bans from any involvement in cycling. According to VeloNation, the three include two doctors: Michele Ferrari and Luis Garcia del Moral and the team trainer, Pepe Marti. The article continued by saying:

More Doping Cases Coming to Light in Pro Cycling

I have a feeling that the next few months will be filled with news about doping in Pro Cycling. The NY Times and other news agencies are reporting that Jeffrey Novitzky's investigation is getting closer to Lance's inner circle all the time. This is the typical fraud investigation process.

Best practice in any fraud investigation is to start interviewing those who are most distant from the suspect but who may be able to give you information to build on. Start with people who can tell you about Lance but are not close to him any more--Floyd Landis, Betsy Andreu, Lance's former wife, Kristin, etc. Then you gradually get closer and closer, gathering facts and testimony along the way. By the time you get to the inner circle, you have a lot of evidence in the way of testimony and, perhaps, hard evidence such as documentation, that you can hold over the heads of the people you are talking to. Imagine