A recent ruling has now been made against the Tour de France cyclist after the insurer sued for fraud.
A panel decision has now been made to order Lance Armstrong to pay his insurance company $10 million after that insurer sued him for fraud in 2013 following his highly publicized case of Fraud in 2012.
The decision from the Texas arbitration panel was a vote of 2 to 1 with regards to the Tour de France winning bonuses.
According to Bob Hamman, the president and founder of the sports insurance company, SCA Promotions, in a statement that he released, “We are very pleased with this result,” adding that “It is hard to describe how much harm Lance Armstrong’s web of lies caused SCA, but this is a good first start towards repairing that damage.” That insurer explained that the award of $10 million could be the largest one that has been awarded in U.S. judicial history, when it comes to sanctions that have been assessed against an individual.
This decision for the insurance company is different from a civil judgment as it holds a definition as a sanction against the athlete.
The reason that this is not a civil judgment is partly because it has been categorized as a sanction against Armstrong for having been under oath when he lied during a prior dispute that existed between himself and the insurer, while before the same arbitration panel. The panel explained that “Perjury must never be profitable,” and that “Justice in courts of law and arbitration tribunals is impossible when parties feel free to deliberately deceive judges or arbitrators… Deception demands real, meaningful sanctions.”
That said, even before the panel made its decision, Armstrong had already said that he would not pay the $10 million voluntarily. This was why the insurance provider has asked a Texas court to deem the decision on the arbitration panel to be a final judgment.
The ruling from the panel is only the most recent in a string of setbacks for Armstrong from the insurance company and others. He currently has attorneys in England and three different American time zones to help to protect himself against the lawsuits that have been occurring since January 2013, when he made the doping confession in an interview with Opera Winfrey.