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

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...

It’s Only Lying About Drugs (A Guest Post)

Lance Armstrong (from the internet)

Note: The following is a guest post by R. Duke Dougherty, Jr. Fraudbytes publishes high quality guest posts on fraud-related topics.

If I doze off while reading a cycling article, I run the risk of dreaming about Lance Armstrong. The dream goes like this: I’m watching TV while Armstrong addresses a press conference. Armstrong gives his questioner “the look” and angrily wags a finger as he says, “I did not admit to drug abuse around that woman...Ms. Andreu.” Then my head bobs up a little, but I don’t wake up. Instead, I see Armstrong angrily wagging his finger again as he says, “I did not give used syringes to that masseuse...Ms. O’Reilly.”

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:

Lance Armstrong Investigation: What I Learned from 60 Minutes

I watched three 60 Minutes videos about the Lance Armstrong investigation, including a segment on 60 Minutes Overtime. In these videos, Tyler Hamilton states that the claims he made on 60 Minutes are what he told the Grand Jury that is investigating Lance Armstrong for his use of performance enhancing drugs while racing on the U.S. Postal Team. Here are a few claims made by Tyler and other takeaways from the videos:

Lance Armstrong Investigation: George Hincapie's Response

CBS News reported yesterday that when Jeffrey Novitzky's investigation brought Lance Armstrong's number one lieutenant and close friend, George Hincapie, in to testify, that Hincapie confirmed that Lance had doped by using EPO and testosterone. Here is the quote from the CBS website where you can read about it and also watch a video that was shown on the news yesterday:

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

Betsy Andreu Opens Up to VeloNation

A few weeks ago, we mentioned that Betsy Andreu, wife of former Lance Armstrong teammate Frankie Andreu, was cooperating with Jeffrey Novitzky in Novitzky's investigation of Lance Armstrong.  VeloNation has scored an exclusive interview with Betsy, and the interview is a must read for anyone following the Lance Armstrong doping investigation.  Among other thing, Betsy talks about her motivation for cooperating with Novitzky, the backlash she and her husband have faced, and where she sees the investigation leading.  Here are a few quotes from the interview I found particularly interesting.  Check out the full interview at VeloNation.

Lance Armstrong Investigation: What We May Learn in the End

Note: Fraudbytes encourages contributions from readers. The following post is from a guest contributor, Reed Dempsey.

As findings from Jeffrey Novitzky’s investigation come to light, there are several things that I expect to come out. Here is a short list of potential findings.

Disputed Admission of PED Use by Lance Armstrong May be Reevaluated in Light of New Evidence

VeloNation reports that a disputed admission of PED use by Lance Armstrong may need be reconsidered in light of new evidence submitted by former teammate Frankie Andreu and Andreu's wife Betsy.  First, the disputed admission:

More on the Lance Armstrong fraud investigation

I read an interesting analysis of who, in pro cycling, is likely to talk to Jeffrey Novitzky as he investigates the doping/fraud allegations against Lance Armstrong. The analysis names many top cyclists and others who will likely cooperate including Frankie Andreu, Jonathan Vaughters, Tyler Hamilton, Lance's ex-wife, Dave Zabriskie and others. Interestingly, he says that Levi Leipheimer is likely to crack down emotionally when confronted. He also lists and discusses those he doesn't expect to talk including George Hincapie.

One of the most interesting parts of the analysis is a link to an article that documents an IM exchange between Frankie Andreu and Jonathan Vaughters as they discussed doping among the pro cyclists including Lance, Floyd Landis and others. I've extracted some of the exchange below.

Will Lance Armstrong be charged with fraud?

The NY Times reported yesterday that two "authorities" have revealed that U.S. government officials are considering investigating Lance Armstrong on fraud charges. One of the authorities said that they are particularly interested in "whether money from the United States Postal Service, the main sponsor of Armstrong’s team from 1996 to 2004, was used to buy performance-enhancing drugs." If the government could prove fraud, the sentence for committing fraud is generally longer than that of drug distribution.

The article also states: