Posted on February 27, 2013 by LaBovick Law

Whistleblower Case Against Lance Armstrong

Florida Qui Tam

Hell hath no fury like a cyclist’s wrath!  Okay, so I took the saying and manipulated it a bit for effect. Poor Lance Armstrong, he is now caught in the Floyd Landis Qui Tam wrath.

For those of you not paying attention to the cycling world, Floyd Landis was an American cyclist who won the 2006 Tour de France.  After his victory he was disqualified and stripped of his title because he was busted for doping (using performance enhancing drugs). Landis disputed the charges of cheating for years, but finally came clean and admitted to doping in May 2010.  That effectively killed his biking career.

So what did Landis then do?  He turned in his golden boy yellow Live Strong rubber bracelet clad teammate, Lance Armstrong, and all the rest of his team for doping too.  Not only did Landis rat everyone else out, but he filed a qui tam/whistleblower case as well.

Last week the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced it intends on intervening in that false claims act case.  This is an extremely bad sign for Mr. Armstrong.  The lawsuit is called United States ex rel. Landis v. Tailwind Sports Corporation, et al.  An interesting point to the intervention is that the DOJ only wants to go after Tailwinds corporately, Armstrong personally and one other offender.  They are not interested in all the smaller, less important player-cyclists involved in the compliant.  It will be interesting for me to watch Landis' qui tam attorney struggle with the obligation of dealing with the defendants with whom the DOJ does not wish to go after.

Another question I initially had was: how does a private cycling team get caught up in a qui tam scheme? Qui tam, by definition, means you took money or at least tried to take government money which you didn't deserve.  What did the Armstrong team do to hustle the US Government into giving them money? The US Attorney let us know in their press release.  They stated “Lance Armstrong and his cycling team took more than $30 million from the U.S. Postal Service based on their contractual promise to play fair and abide by the rules – including the rules against doping . . ." Obviously they've all now admitted as much.  So it is just a matter of time before Armstrong's whole organization crumbles.  

If you know of someone doing or trying to steal from the government give us a call.  LaBovick Law Group offers to give you a free evaluation to help qui tam relaters.

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Posted on January 24, 2013 by LaBovick Law

Floyd Landis' Whistleblower Lawsuit Against Lance Armstrong and Others

I’m sure you have heard about the whistleblower lawsuit initiated by Lance Armstrong’s former teammate, Floyd Landis, but if not, where have you been? In this suit Landis has targeted several others that were part of the U.S. Postal Service team for being a part of or knowing of teammates using banned substances for performance enhancement.


This case has been in judicial seal for more than 2 ½ years now. The U.S. Justice Department had a deadline of Thursday January 17, 2013 to decide whether or not to be a part of Landis’s case. Yet, sources were led to believe they had asked for an extension to decide. After many years of speculation, in a 2013 interview, Armstrong finally admitted to Oprah Winfrey that he used banned substances throughout his entire cycling career.


Landis was on the US Postal Service Team with Armstrong from 2002 through 2004. In his lawsuit, he explains in detail how he and the others used (or were at least aware of the use of) banned substances and were blood doping from their hotel rooms, on team buses and in private apartments.


If all goes according to Landis’s plan and the case settles, he would receive 15-25 percent of the settlement if the U.S. Justice Department decides to participate. Or, he would get 25-30 percent of the settlement if the plaintiff goes through with the lawsuit privately, as per the whistleblower law. The insider or whistleblower, the person that comes forward to the authorities on illegal activity, can benefit financially, even if he/she was party to the fraud, as long as he/she was not the mastermind.

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