Texan insurance company SCA Promotions plans to file a lawsuit next week to recoup $12 million from disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong.
SCA Promotions insured bonuses paid to Lance Armstrong when he claimed his fourth, fifth and sixth Tour de France wins.
Lance Armstrong has admitted using performance-enhancing drugs for all seven of his Tour de France wins.
“We will likely file that lawsuit as soon as next week unless we get a satisfactory response from Armstrong’s camp,” SCA lawyer Jeff Tillotson said.
The insurance policy was taken out by Tailwind Sports, owner of the US Postal team, to cover performance bonuses payable to Lance Armstrong if he claimed his fourth, fifth and sixth Tour victories.
SCA initially refused to pay out money covering the bonus for Lance Armstrong’s sixth Tour win in 2004, totalling $5 million, because it argued Armstrong was not a clean rider.
Lance Armstrong took the company to an arbitration hearing in Dallas in 2005 and won, because the contract between the parties stipulated the insurance money would be payable if Armstrong was the “official winner” of the Tour.
But, after Lance Armstrong’s confession of doping to Oprah Winfrey this week, Jeff Tillotson said his client would be looking to recover the money, now assessed at $12 million because of legal costs and interest.
The Dallas attorney gave his reaction to the Armstrong interview with Winfrey, saying he found it “jaw-dropping” that Lance Armstrong had admitted all the things he denied in the arbitration hearing in 2005.
“Every question in his testimony that he answered no to when I asked him, he answered yes to Oprah Winfrey,” he said.
“So it was pretty clear from the first few minutes of the interview he was admitting that he had committed perjury in our legal proceedings in the US.
“From our perspective we were somewhat floored by how quickly he admitted that.”
Jeff Tillotson said Lance Armstrong was yet to get in touch with him personally, or SCA Promotions.
There have been suggestions that Lance Armstrong could also be charged with perjury for lying under oath in 2005 but Jeff Tillotson admits this is unlikely to happen.
