Lance Armstrong Ordered to Pay $10 Million for Lying About Use of Performance-Enhancing Drugs

Disgraced cyclist to pay money to Dallas sports company SCA Promotions

By Francesca Bacardi Feb 17, 2015 1:51 PMTags
Lance ArmstrongMichael Stewart/Getty Images

Lance Armstrong's fall from grace still isn't over.

After being found guilty of using performance-enhancing drugs during his years participating in the Tour de France, causing him to be stripped of his seven wins and be banned from cycling altogether, Armstrong continues to feel the fallout from his cheating. A Texas panel now has ordered the disgraced cyclist to pay SCA Promotions, the Dallas sports company that paid Armstrong's winning bonuses, $10 million for lying under oath.

"Perjury must never be profitable," the panel wrote in its ruling, as quoted by USA Today.

The panel, which ruled in a 2-1 decision, said that Armstrong and team's management company, Tailwind Sports, "used perjury and other wrongful conduct to secure millions of dollars of benefits." It also decided that the Livestrong founder and his management "expressed no remorse" about their lies and instead "continued to lie to the panel throughout the final hearing even while admitting to prior falsehoods and other wrongful conduct."

According to the report, Armstrong's attorney, Tim Herman, said that Armstrong would return to court to have the decision overturned on the basis that both parties reached a "final and binding" settlement in 2006.

"This award is unprecedented," Herman said in a statement to USA Today Sports. "No court or arbitrator has ever reopened a matter which was fully and finally settled voluntarily. In this matter SCA repeatedly affirmed that it never relied upon anything Armstrong said or did in deciding to settle [in 2006]."

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The dispute between Armstrong and SCA Promotions began in 2004 when the sports company wouldn't pay him his bonus for winning the Tour de France. He sued the company for breach of contract and took out a full-page ad trashing the company.

SCA Promotions wouldn't back down despite putting its reputation at risk, which brought the case to arbitration. When asked about his alleged drug use, Armstrong said he had never doped. Lack of evidence and Armstrong's denial under oath meant SCA Promotions had to settle and pay the cyclist $7.5 million in 2006.

The Dallas sports company's staunch efforts weren't in vain, however, as the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency banned Armstrong for life and stripped him of his seven Tour de France titles.