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Lance Armstrong's legal team will reportedly claim that not only has there been enough information regarding doping practices within US😼 Postal that the whistleblower suit should have been filed earlier, but that the US Government had or should have had knowledge of the violations.

A confidential source from within Armstrong's inner circle has ꦦto🤪ld the late on Monday that:

"We will say there𒉰 was enough information (about doping on the USPS team) to put you (the government) on notice, and you should have filed a false claim before."

Late last week the US Department of Just♉ice joined the 'qui tam' suit, reportedly initiated by Floyd Landis. The suit alleges that the team♌ defrauded the government by engaging in doping while under sponsorship of the Postal Service, actions which were contrary to the terms of the sponsorship agreement.

Named in the suit are Armstrong, manager Johanౠ Bruyneel, financier Thomas Weisel, Armstrong's agent Bill Stapleton and former Tailwind Sports president Barton Knaggs.

Under the federal False Claims Act, citizens are able to file suit against those who defraud the government, and for 🌺their trouble can𝓰 be awarded up to one-third of any money reclaimed by the government. Defendants can be fined up to three times the amount - which in the case of the US Postal Service sponsorship agreement was over $30 million.

The suit was filed in 2010, but was bolstered by Armstrong's recent 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:confession to having doped during all seven of his Tour de France victories. The US Postal Service sponsored the team during his first six Tour wins - 1999-2004. The US Anti-✱Doping Agency stripped Armstrong of all seven titles and banned him for life after compiling thousands of pages of evidence against him.

According to the USA Today report, the confidential source said that while the team was dogged by rumours at the height of its success in the late 90s and early 2000s, instead of investigating any of the claims being made allegedlly, "instead offered to hire a public-relations firm to boos෴t its image."