The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) may seek to strip Lance Armstrong of his Tour de France victories and earnings according to the Washington Post. The eight-time Tour de France champion is currently under investigation by the United States Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles. It is believed that a grand jury is considering whether to indict Lance Armstrong on charges of defrauding the U.S. government.
Armstrong was a member of the United States Postal Service cycling team and since the U.S. Postal Service is a government agency, anyone who defrauded the government by using anabolic steroids, erythropoeitin (EPO), or other banned substances or methods such as blood doping, could face serious criminal penalties.
USADA, which has a long history of prosecuting athletes who haven’t tested positive when other evidence becomes available, interviewed Floyd Landis when he became the first athlete to say publicly he witnessed drug use by Armstrong last May. After Landis made the allegations, the agency formally opened a wide-ranging investigation into doping in cycling.
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The World Anti-Doping Code places an eight-year statute of limitations on bringing doping charges, but one attorney said USADA would likely argue that the statute of limitations does not apply in a case involving fraud or concealment. Another countered that Armstrong’s first four Tour victories might be untouchable, with only the last three in jeopardy. Both attorneys declined to be identified because they did not wish to publicly comment on the case.
The CBS television news program “60 Minutes” reported that Lance Armstrong’s former teammates, George Hincapie and Tyler Hamilton, told a federal grand jury that they discussed using anabolic steroids and erythropoietin with Lance Armstrong. Hamilton, in an interview broadcast on “60 Minutes”, claimed to have used performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) with Armstrong. Hincapie refused to confirm substance of his grand jury testimony. However, Hamilton joins two other former teammates of Armstrong, Floyd Landis and Frankie Andreu who have publicly gone on record to state that Armstrong used PEDs.
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