Feds want to question Lance Armstrong's girlfriend in fraud case
The United States Justice Department is seeking to question former cyclist Lance Armstrong’s domestic partner, Anna Hansen, as part of its civil fraud case, reports USA Today’s Brent Schrotenboer.
The federal government sued Armstrong under the False Claims Act in 2013 claiming he violated his contract with the United States Postal Service by using performance-enhancing drugs and cheating to win the Tour de France seven straight times.
The Justice Department joined the lawsuit that was originally filed in 2010 by Armstrong's former USPS teammate Floyd Landis.
Hansen, the mother of two of Armstrong’s children, was subpoenaed to testify in a deposition next month, but Armstrong wants to stop the possible subpoena saying it "appears to have been served only to harass Armstrong and his family."
“Anna knows nothing about events related to the USPS sponsorship," Armstrong's attorney, Sharif Jacob, stated in an e-mail to government attorneys.
A U.S. attorney says that is not the case, claiming that Hansen is “witness to several issues in this case.”
Armstrong, 43, was stripped of all of his Tour de France victories and banned for life in 2012 after the United States Anti-Doping Agency issued a report detailing how Armstrong and his Postal Service teammates “ran the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen.”
The USPS says they paid Armstrong $17 million and spent nearly $40 million appearing as the main title sponsor on several of Armstrong’s teams.
The government wants at least triple the amount of the Postal Service’s sponsorship funds back from Armstrong, which means he could be paying more than $100 million in damages.
Hansen and Armstrong were recently in the news after Armstrong hit two parked cars with his vehicle in Aspen, Colorado, with Hansen taking the blame for the accident.
Hansen was not charged and Armstrong pleaded guilty to careless driving in February, where he paid a $238.50 court fee and a $150 traffic fine.
- Scooby Axson
