In the years since the the United States Postal Service sponsored Lance Armstrong’s multiple Tour de France victories, the USPS has fallen into a serious financial crisis, and Armstrong has been exposed as a doping cheater and/or cheating dope. This chain of events has an obvious solution: why doesn’t the government sue Armstrong’s management and get that sponsorship money back?

In the big picture of the USPS’s shortfall, the $40 million paid to Armstrong isn’t huge. It might cover bringing back Saturday mail delivery for a few months. But isn’t the principle annoying?

The complaint from the U.S. Department of Justice, alleges that Armstrong’s team “knowingly caused material violations of the sponsorship agreements by regularly and systematically employing banned substances and methods to enhance their performance.” The cyclist’s team countered in a statement that the U.S. Postal Service brand got “tremendous exposure during the sponsorship years” of 1998 to 2004, during which they paid the team $40 million in sponsorship money.

Justice Department: Lance Armstrong was ‘unjustly enriched’ [NBC]

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