Lance Armstrong Guilty Of ‘International Perjury, Fraud And Conspiracy’

Lance Armstrong continues his losing streak. The former American professional road-racing cyclist won the Tour de France seven consecutive times between 1999 and 2005.

However, in 2012, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency submitted a 202-page report on Armstrong, placing him at the center of a doping program during his prime in cycling.

The report included former U.S. Postal Service teammates admitting to doping and ways of beating the drug testing. Moreover, the International Cycling Union Armstrong stripped Lance Armstrong of his Tour de France titles and banned him from professional cycling for life.

Initially, Armstrong denied allegations that he used drugs as the case went to arbitration.

Lance Armstrong reiterated his innocence when he testified under oath in 2006.

“I race the bike straight up fair and square.”

However, in a television interview with Oprah Winfrey, Armstrong later admitted to using banned performance-enhancing drugs during his cycling career.

Today, the Wall Street Journal reports an arbitration panel ordered that Lance Armstrong and Tailwind Sports Corp. must pay SCA Promotions Inc., a prize-insurer, $10 million as punishment for lying under oath about doping.

The arbitration panel called this fraud dispute an “unparalleled pageant of international perjury, fraud, and conspiracy” that covered up his use of performance-enhancing drugs.

Excerpts from the new decision were as follows.

“Perjury must never be profitable. Tailwind Sports Corp. and Lance Armstrong have justly earned wide public condemnation. That is an inadequate deterrent. Deception demands real, meaningful sanctions.”

Ted Lyon, a member of the arbitration panel, offered additional written comments about the fraud case.

“There is no Texas case or statute that allows for this type of sanctions motion nine years after the award was given. No party in this case came here with clean hands. The final decision by the panel reminds me about the do right rule. It doesn’t matter what the law is, let’s just do what is right. Arbitrators, like judges, don’t have that luxury, and the Panel exceeded its authority by indulging itself here.”

SCA’s president and founder, Bob Hamman offered his response to the panel’s decision to the Associated Press.

“We are very pleased with this result. It is hard to describe how much harm Lance Armstrong’s web of lies caused SCA but this is a good first start toward repairing that damage.”

The federal government and former teammate Floyd Landis are also suing Lance Armstrong over his team’s sponsorship contract with the U.S. Postal Service. The case is not scheduled to go to trial before 2016.

[Photo by George Burns/Oprah Winfrey Network via Getty Images]