Lance Armstrong sued for $12 million bonus

In this Monday, Jan. 14, 2013, file photo provided by Harpo Studios Inc., Lance Armstrong listens as he is interviewed by talk show host Oprah Winfrey during taping for the show "Oprah and Lance Armstrong: The Worldwide Exclusive" in Austin, Texas. / AP Photo/Courtesy of Harpo Studios, File, George Burns, Inc.

AUSTIN, Texas A Dallas promotions company sued Lance Armstrong on Thursday, demanding he repay $12 million in bonuses and fees it paid him for winning the Tour de France.

SCA Promotions had tried in a 2005 legal dispute to prove Armstrong cheated to win before it ultimately settled and paid him.

12 Photos

Lance Armstrong's doping denials through the years

Armstrong recently acknowledged using performance-enhancing drugs, and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency in 2012 detailed a sophisticated doping program by his Armstrong's teams. Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France victories and given a lifetime ban from sports.

Now, the company contends in its lawsuit, Armstrong and agent Bill Stapleton conspired to cheat SCA out of millions. The lawsuit notes that Armstrong repeatedly testified under oath in the 2005 dispute that he did not use steroids, other drugs or blood doping methods to win, all of which he now admits to doing.

"It is time now for Mr. Armstrong to face the consequences of his actions," the lawsuit said. "He admits he doped; he admits he bullied people; he admits he lied."

The lawsuit names Armstrong, Stapleton and Tailwind Sports, Inc., the team's management entity, as defendants.

• Commentary: Fifty shades of Lance

Tim Herman, an attorney for Armstrong and Stapleton, did not immediately return telephone messages. Herman has previously noted that SCA previously settled its case with Armstrong and said it should not be allowed to reopen the matter.

SCA's lawsuit counters that the case was settled only after Armstrong's lies under oath prevented it from proving he doped.

The lawsuit seeks to recover $9.5 million in bonus money and another $2.5 million paid to Armstrong for other costs and fees.

This is not the first time Armstrong has been sued since his confession. Last month, two California men filed a class-action complaint in federal court in Sacramento, claiming the disgraced cycling star's memoirs, billed as non-fiction, were filled with lies, according to multiple reports.

Play Video

Travis Tygart comes face to face with Lance Armstrong

Separately, USADA chief executive Travis Tygart said Wednesday the agency has been in contact with him Armstrong and is giving him more time to decide if he wants to cooperate with its investigators and tell more about what he knows of doping in cycling.

USADA extended its original Wednesday deadline to Feb. 20 to work out an interview with investigators under oath.

Just two weeks ago, Herman had strongly suggested Armstrong would not be interested in talking with USADA investigators. Tygart said it was Armstrong who asked for more time.

"We understand that he does want to be part of the solution and assist in the effort to clean up the sport of cycling," Tygart said in a statement. "We have agreed to his request for an additional two weeks to work on details to hopefully allow for this to happen."

Armstrong admitted to doping for the first time in an interview with Oprah Winfrey last month but Tygart told "60 Minutes" that the cyclist lied to Winfrey and withheld the truth on key issues.

The agency has said cooperating in its cleanup effort is the only path open to Armstrong if his lifetime ban from sports is to be reduced.

[Ulgnud]

They might get a judgement against him, but collecting might be easier said than done. Remember OJ?

[baileycccc]

Lance is a very wealthy man. It obviously pays to cheat in sports.

[npbstl]

Soon he will be pennyless.

[909101]

He won't have to pay it back. The insurance company didn't pay it to Armstrong as a bonus but as an award through arbitation. In the agreement signed by both parties is the following:

"no party may challenge, appeal or attempt to set aside the arbitration award."

Now, whether he should pay it back or give to charity is another matter but the insurance company won't be seeing a penny of it through this lawsuit.

[st247]

Anybody halfway serious about cleaning up performance-enhancing drugs in sports should demand that every professional sports organization in the world - the NFL, NBA, MLB, and all the rest, and the teams that comprise them, and those organizations which sanctioon individual competition, and all advertisers - should write claw-back provisions into their contracts with the athletes who are paid multi-millions: "you cheat, we get our money back."

[Non-Political]

ST247,

Unfortunately when it comes to major bucks in sports, honesty will almost always take a back seat.