Usadaâ€™s Report Could Create New Legal Issues for Lance Armstrong

Although federal prosecutors abruptly abandoned a criminal investigation related to doping accusations against Lance Armstrong earlier this year, the report released on Wednesday by antidoping officials is likely to create new legal issues for Armstrong.

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Lance Armstrong was paid a $5 million bonus for his 2004 Tour de France victory.

The United States Anti-Doping agency's report, which amounted to a damning depiction of Armstrong as a main conspirator in a vast doping scheme, contended that Armstrong repeatedly lied under oath. That element of the report is sure to revive attempts by an insurer to recoup a $5 million performance bonus it covered after Armstrong won the Tour de France in 2004.

After promising Armstrong a bonus, his United States Postal Service team protected itself against that potential financial liability through a policy from SCA Promotions, a company based in Dallas that specializes in assuming risks associated with prizes. Because a French book detailed allegations of doping against Armstrong in 2004, SCA initially balked at paying. After a protracted arbitration process, the insurer ultimately agreed to settle for $7.5 million in 2006. The additional $2.5 million covered interest as well as Armstrong's legal costs.

The antidoping agency said it found Armstrong committed perjury during the SCA hearings by making false statements about his doping activities. At the time, Armstrong attacked SCA and its founder, Bob Hamman, as well as witnesses, including some members of the cycling community, who testified for the company.

On Friday, Jeffrey M. Tillotson, a lawyer in Dallas who represents SCA, said his client would attempt to regain the $7.5 million plus interest. "He basically said that we were scum and how dare we criticize him," Tillotson said. "So there is some measure of relief that we can now say that he didn't get away with it forever and, by the way, 'You owe us $7.5 million.' "

Armstrong has vehemently denied doping throughout his career. Timothy J. Herman, one of his lawyers, said the terms of the 2006 settlement prevent S.C.A. from reopening the case.

"The full and final release that SCA signed put this to bed long ago," Herman wrote in an e-mail. "SCA agreed it could never challenge or appeal the award anyway or anyhow — ever."

Tillotson said Armstrong's lies, as outlined in the agency's report, had changed the understanding that was reached through arbitration. He acknowledged that any decision on recourse will rest with an arbitrator. The agency's move to strip Armstrong of his seven Tour de France titles because of doping, Tillotson said, will boost the company's prospects of recovering its money.

When asked about the possibility that Armstrong lied under oath during arbitration with SCA, Mark Fabiani, a spokesman for Armstrong, did not directly address the truthfulness of Armstrong's testimony but said that portions of the evidence that three former teammates provided Usada appeared to contradict sworn statements they made during the SCA process.

The report also said Armstrong attempted to intimidate witnesses and tried to get riders to present false statements to the agency. Fabiani said neither Armstrong nor his lawyers had been contacted regarding accusations of witness intimidation and called them insignificant.

The doping case unveiled by Usada is unlikely to renew an earlier criminal investigation of Armstrong related to doping. In that case, federal prosecutors examined allegations of his doping and doping-related crimes, including defrauding the government, drug trafficking, money laundering and conspiracy. In particular, investigators from the Food and Drug Administration, the F.B.I. and the United States Postal Service, which sponsored Armstrong's team for several years, looked into whether he and his associates used government money to finance doping.

André Birotte Jr., the United States attorney for the Central District of California, announced in February that he had closed an investigation into Armstrong. He gave no reason for ending the inquiry.

An inquiry by the Department of Justice, however, is believed to be continuing. Floyd Landis, one of Armstrong's former teammates, filed a federal whistle-blower lawsuit charging that Armstrong and the Postal Service team management defrauded the government by using taxpayer dollars to finance the squad's doping program.

Landis claimed Armstrong and the team management were aware of the widespread doping on the team when its contract with the Postal Service clearly stated that any doping would constitute default of their agreement, said two people with knowledge of the case. Those people did not want their names published because the case is under seal.

Juliet Macur contributed reporting.

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