Lance Armstrong: sued for fraud by two readers
Adding to athlete Lance Armstrong鈥檚 troubles, two readers are suing him and the publishers of his books, Penguin Group and Random House. The readers are pursuing a class action lawsuit because they say the athlete, Penguin, and Random House all committed fraud and false representation by touting Armstrong鈥檚 memoirs as fact. The plaintiffs are Rob Stutzman, a public affairs adviser who worked with Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Jonathan Wheeler, a chef.
The complaint was filed on Jan. 22 in federal court in California, reading in part, 鈥淭hroughout the book, Defendant Armstrong repeatedly denies that he ever used banned substances before or during his professional cycling career鈥� [The books were bought] based upon the false belief that they were true and honest works of nonfiction when, in fact, Defendants knew or should have known that these books were works of fiction.鈥澛�
Stutzman and Wheeler are represented in court by California and New Jersey-based law firms.
Representation for Armstrong had no comment, according to the .
Penguin published Armstrong鈥檚 memoir, 鈥淚t鈥檚 Not About the Bike,鈥� which was released in 2000. His book 鈥淓very Second Counts鈥� was published by Random House in 2003.
The literary world saw a somewhat similar case when writer Greg Mortenson was sued for fabrications in his memoir, 鈥淭hree Cups of Tea,鈥� which detailed his work building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. When significant pieces of Mortenson's story were discovered to be untrue, four readers sued Mortenson, his co-author David Oliver Relin, Mortenson鈥檚 school-building organization, and his publisher Penguin Group. However, the federal judge who took on the case in Montana dismissed the lawsuit.聽
鈥淭he imprecise, in part flimsy, and speculative nature of the claims and theories advanced underscore the necessary conclusion that further amendment [of the complaint] would be futile,鈥� US District Judge Sam Haddon said.
