According to an article in USA Today, Armstrong is forming his defense. They say he’s going to argue that he never submitted a false claim to the government and the case is too old to pursue.
They’re reporting that the government either knew or should have known what was going on in regards to doping on the team but didn’t try to stop it. They think the false claim should have been filed long ago if it was so important. The fine line will most likely be about the 6 year statute of limitations and the definition of a false claim. And what did the USPS know and when?
“The law is that if the government knew of the fraud, you can’t prosecute someone for fraud,” said Tony Anikeeff, an attorney who specializes in similar cases for the firm Williams Mullen. “(The government’s argument) will be that he denied it vociferously for years and kept them in the dark.”
“Anikeeff, who is not involved in the case, said a big early hurdle for the government will be the statute of limitations.”
Floyd Landis filed the suit in 2010 claiming Armstrong and company defrauded the government with the doping scheme. He’s claiming the doping violates the USPS sponsor contract and the government should get its money back though it’s more like Floyd wants the money which could amount to tens of millions of dollars.
“Armstrong’s attorneys will argue that the whole case should be thrown out because of the six-year statute of limitations, which started when Landis filed the case in 2010. At best, they will say the six-year statute bars all but one year of the USPS sponsorship from the suit – 2004. In response, Anikeeff said the government is expected to argue that the fraud was concealed and that the six-year rule shouldn’t apply.”
“The person close to Armstrong’s defense said that as doping allegations swirled around the USPS team, the USPS didn’t investigate or file for a false claim but instead offered to hire a public-relations firm to boost its image.” USA Today says that Armstrong did not have a contract with the USPS or the government so he could not have submitted a false claim. The contracts were with Tailwind Sports who managed the team. Tailwind supposedly never guaranteed that the riders wouldn’t dope.
