The insurance company which was the subject of a hotly-contested court action between 2004 and 2006, SCA Promotions, has said that it will monitor the USADA action against Lance Armstrong and the US Postal Service Team, and doesn’t rule out taking legal action at a future point in time.
During Armstrong’s winning streak of Tour successes, US Postal Service team owner Tailwind Sports had taken out an insurance policy with Texas-based SCA Promotions in order to cover the performance bonuses that would be due to the rider when he won the Tour. $5 million was payable after he won his sixth Tour title in 2004 but, on the basis of the doping claims made in the LA Confidentiel book, SCA refused to pay out on the grounds that the Tour wins may not have been clean.
Armstrong took legal action and eventually won because the original SCA Promotions contract didn’t include stipulations about doping. The company ended up paying the sum in question as well as an additional $2.5 million in interest and legal fees.
Now, six years after the settlement was made, company CEO Bob Hamman has said that SCA Promotions is aware of the new developments, and that it would consider taking an action if it became clear that there was scope for a successful outcome.
“We didn’t have any reason to believe this was coming, although we had heard some rumours,” he told VeloNation today. “There’s not much we can do right now, but we will watch this with interest. We will review this situation and if it looks actionable, we’ll certainly take action.”
It’s not immediately clear on what grounds SCA Promotions would act, but its legal experts will monitor proceedings and make a decision in time. “I imagine this is probably going to drag on for a few months. Let’s say I’d be very surprised if I heard anything before the end of the year…these things just take forever,” Hamman continued. “We have plenty of time to review this situation, though. For now, we’ll see what happens and then decide.”
Whether or not SCA Promotions ultimately gets involved, its earlier action has already played a part in the USADA investigation. It produced evidence and testimony which current investigators were able to draw upon, including sworn statements by Frankie and Betsy Andreu, anti-doping researcher Michael Ashenden and others.