Landis settles out of court with Armstrong co-defendants
Court documents reveal that Lance Armstrong’s long-serving agent Bill Stapleton and business associate Barton Knaggs have reached an out of court settlement, agreeing a payment of $158,000.
Back in 2010 Landis sued the pair and Lance Armstrong on behalf of the U.S. Government, something which this agreement ties into. The settlement with the pair now paves the way for the U.S. Government and Landis to directly challenge Armstrong alone in a trial now set for Washington D.C.
“Suffice it say, the settlement was reasonable under all the circumstances,” Landis’ attorney, Paul Scott, told USA TODAY Sports Thursday. “It allows us to focus our efforts and attention now on the upcoming trial of the central responsible party in the case.”
With the case now simplified, $90,000 of the tally will now be paid to Scott’s law firm, while the federal Government will be paid $68,000.
This is the second time around for this saga. In 2015 a settlement worth $500,000 to the federal government and $100,000 to Scott’s law business was rejected by the judge following government objections, said to be a bid to extract more information from the duo before a trial.
“My clients are pleased to be out of the case,” said Marc Harris, an attorney in Los Angeles who represented Stapleton and Knaggs. “It has been a very long road for them. Even with several rulings in our favor that continually whittled down the case against them, the government withheld its consent to have them dismissed from the case. We are gratified that we have finally resolved the matter.”
Co-owners of Capital Sports and Entertainment, Knaggs and Stapleton were accused by Landis of conspiring alongside Armstrong to submit false claims to the Postal Service to be paid.
Landis was formerly a Postal Service team mate of Armstrong’s and like the seven-time Tour winner, confessed to doping. As a whistleblower, Landis stands to earn around a quarter of any damages, should the case succeed.
You can read more on the case here.
