Disgraced former cyclist Lance Armstrong is liquidating some assets amid the Texas-sized legal woes that may end up costing him the lion's share of his ill-gotten gains.
Armstrong is selling his palatial home near Austin, Texas, potentially freeing up a few million bucks that various plaintiffs will surely try to retrieve for themselves. Among those suing Armstrong is the Department of Justice, which seeks tens of millions of taxpayer dollars that went toward sponsoring Armstrong's corrupt U.S. Postal Service cycling team.
According to the Austin American-Statesman, businessman Al Koehler filed a deed of trust in Travis County last week showing that he obtained a $3.1 million loan to buy Armstrong's plush estate on the edge of town. Koehler, an oil-and-gas rights agent, told the newspaper he paid nothing close to the property's listed value of $10 million.
Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles last year and is banned for life from sports. In a January appearance on Oprah Winfrey's network he confessed that his cycling career was "one big lie," but has yet to make a full accounting of his deceptions.
Mark Higgins, a spokesman for Armstrong, confirmed to the Associated Press the sale of the Austin estate and said Armstrong plans to remain a resident of the city.
Armstrong recently asked a Texas court to dismiss a lawsuit against him from SCA Promotions, which seeks to reclaim $12 million Armstrong took from it in the settlement of an arbitration case in which Armstrong swore under oath that he never doped.
Other parties have come forward with various claims, including one that alleges Armstrong defrauded people who bought the books he co-wrote with Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post.
In his high-flying career as a record-smashing athlete and icon to cancer survivors, Armstrong also had homes in Aspen, Spain and the south of France. He hobnobbed with Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, dated Sheryl Crow and flew around in private jets. He appeared to win seven Tour de France titles and claimed, stridently and under oath, to be squeaky clean.
"To the people who don't believe in cycling, the cynics and the skeptics," he said from the Tour de France podium in 2005. "I'm sorry for you. I'm sorry that you can't dream big. I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles."
All along, Armstrong's performances were fueled by banned drugs like testosterone and EPO, as well as illicit blood transfusions carried out in hotels and, according to sworn testimony, the U.S. Postal Service's team bus. Dozens of people had first-hand knowledge that the Armstrong story was a lie, and many of them profited handsomely from it while Armstrong sued and smeared anyone who whispered their suspicions.
A federal investigation began in early 2010, around the time that Armstrong's former teammate, Floyd Landis, began blowing the whistle on all the corruption. A grand jury probe produced sworn testimony and mountains of evidence but mysteriously ended in January of 2012. Then the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency stepped up and charged Armstrong with doping.
After vigorously trying to fend USADA off — Armstrong found members of Congress sympathetic to his fight — Armstrong finally accepted defeat late last summer. His sponsors jumped ship, his cancer foundation was forced to sever ties and the lawsuits started rolling in the door.
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