Nike must turn over Lance Armstrong emails to feds in $100M post office case, judge rules
Lance Armstrong
in 2006. Featureflash
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Hoping to win a civil fraud lawsuit against Lance Armstrong that could reap as much as $100 million in damages, the U.S. government has been seeking access to emails between the famed cyclist and his now-former corporate sponsor, Nike.
Armstrong wants the emails produced, too, because they could help bolster his argument that the U.S. Postal Service, which spent some $30 million sponsoring his team, pretty much got what it paid for despite a doping scandal that subsequently unfolded, USA Today reports.
However, Nike was hoping to win a court ruling that the emails didn’t have to be disclosed, arguing that they aren’t relevant and could reveal trade secrets.
On Tuesday, a federal judge in Portland, Oregon, gave the feds and Armstrong a partial victory, ruling that Nike will have to produce at least some of the emails. But U.S. District Judge Marco Hernandez withheld judgment on whether some emails containing financial information must be disclosed, the article reports.
“I don’t know that a viewer watching Lance Armstrong cycle through the Alps would decide that they wanted now to go start using express mail from the Postal Service,” attorney Bob Weaver, who represents Nike, told the judge. “But if they decided they would want a jersey he was wearing, that could be because they like Lance Armstrong,” Weaver said, or like Nike’s Swoosh logo, or “because they see Nike as sponsoring outstanding athletes across the board, and they want to be connected to that.”
Armstrong has now admitted using performance-enhancing drugs and has been stripped of his seven Tour de France titles.
If the U.S. government prevails in the False Claims Act case, its damages (presumably the $30 million it paid to sponsor the team) could be trebled. However, a significant amount of that total would go to the whistleblower in the case, former cyclist Floyd Landis.
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Is Lance Armstrong using a ‘shameless’ defense in Postal Service bid to recover marketing bucks?”
Associated Press (May 2013): “Nike cuts ties to Livestrong, Lance Armstrong’s charity”
USA Today: “Why Nike is a star witness in Lance Armstrong case”
See also:
Forbes: “Lance Armstrong Legal Settlement Makes Tax Problem On Steroids”
