Lance Armstrong and his former US Postal Service (USPS) team associates scored a potentially major victory this week in the whistleblower suit brought by Floyd Landis under the Federal False Claims Act (FCA) in 2010. US District Judge Christopher R. Cooper agreed to allow an important milestone in the case from 2014 to be reconsidered. The decision calls into question the claims on the majority of the $31 million sponsorship package.
Landis filed the lawsuit in 2010, and it was joined by the US government in 2013. They argue that by conspiring to dope the riders, Armstrong and the other parties who ran the USPS team violated their contract and defrauded the government. By covering up the doping, Landis alleged, they were avoiding having to repay the sponsorship dollars under the terms of the contract.
Armstrong admitted to doping after being banned for life by USADA in 2012.
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Writing in a January 12, 2016 opinion, Cooper granted reconsideration of Landis' remaining claims against Armstrong. In a 2014 decision, US Circuit Judge Robert L. Wilkins allowed the so-called 'reverse false claims' action against Armstrong and Johan Bruyneel's company, Tailwind Sports, to go forward, while simultaneously dismissing claims against team financier Thom Weisel.
Cooper questioned the validity of the claims against Armstrong and Tailwind in this week's opinion. "Tailwind owed no legal obligation to the United States at the time that any defendants allegedly made (or caused to be made) false statements to avoid repaying money received under the sponsorship agreement," Cooper wrote.
Cooper could find no decision other than that of Wilkins in 2014 in which a federal contractor who violated the terms of their contract was obligated to pay under the false claims act, rather than simply being sued for breach of contract by the government.
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