Lance Armstrong’s Requests to Dismiss $100 Million Fraud Lawsuit Denied by Court

Lance Armstrong has always been adamant when it comes to his requests to dismiss a fraud lawsuit against him. Only last year, the US government filed a $100 million fraud lawsuit against Armstrong. However, no matter how strongly he demands the case to be dismissed, his requests were denied.

In a ruling that reaches 81 pages, Judge Robert Wilkins allowed the case of the US government against Armstrong to proceed. This set the stage for a highly expensive court battle between the disgraced cyclist and the American government. If the government wins this one, Armstrong will lose a fortune.

Armstrong's lawyers had argued that the case against him was far too old to be brought under the statute of limitations. Apart from that, they had also argued that it was the government's responsibility to know that he was doping, but decided not to do anything to stop it.

According to his team of attorneys, the reason why the government opted to keep mum about Armstrong's secret antics was because the US Postal Service cycling team benefited a lot from his success. After Armstrong's success in the famous Tour de France, there was a lot of positive publicity that surrounded him, and his attorneys are fighting that this was the reason why the US government did not do anything about his doping.

Wilkins wrote in his statement, "There could possibly be documents in the government's possession suggesting that it had reason to know the cycling team was doping, despite the findings of the investigation by the French authorities. If so, there may be force to the defendants' argument that the government should have conducted its own investigation sooner, and that if it had undertaken such an investigation, it would have uncovered doping. But, the Court cannot make that determination based on the present record and based solely on the allegations in the complaint, as required when ruling on a motion to dismiss. Accordingly, the Court denies without prejudice, the defendants' motion to dismiss the government's action as time-barred."