Lance Armstrong suit can go forward
| WASHINGTON
A US judge has refused to dismiss the government's lawsuit against disgraced cyclist聽Lance聽Armstrongand associates for alleged doping and use of banned performance-enhancing techniques.
From 1999 to 2004,聽Armstrong聽was the lead rider on a team sponsored by the US聽Postal Service, and he won the Tour de France every year during that period.
On Thursday, Judge Robert Wilkins ruled in favor of the government's position that聽Armstrong聽and associates owed an obligation to pay money due to the alleged breach of the sponsorship agreements with the Postal Service.
The Postal Service paid about $40 million to be the title sponsor of聽Armstrong's聽teams for six of his seven Tour de France victories.
The judge said the government's complaints are rife with allegations that聽Armstrong聽had knowledge of the doping and that he made false statements to conceal it.
The Justice Department says the cyclist violated his contract with the US聽Postal Service and was "unjustly enriched" while cheating to win the Tour.
The Justice Department stepped into the case last year, joining a whistleblower lawsuit brought by former聽Armstrong聽teammate Floyd Landis under the federal False Claims Act.
Wilkins, a newly appointed appeals judge for the US聽Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, is sitting as a US聽district judge in the lawsuit against聽Armstrong.
