A federal judge said on Monday he likely will allow a lawsuit to move forward accusing cyclist Lance Armstrong and his business partners of defrauding the U.S. Postal Service of endorsement money through Armstrong's use of performance-enhancing drugs.
U.S. District Judge Robert Wilkins said at a court hearing in Washington that he planned to rule in writing within 30 days on requests by Armstrong and the other defendants to dismiss the suit.
"It might get dismissed as to some defendants. I can tell you I doubt it as to all Zay Jones Shirt ," Wilkins said. He was not specific about which defendants might still face claims.
Former Armstrong teammate Floyd Landis brought the suit in 2010 under a federal law that allows whistleblowers to report fraud committed against the government in exchange for a reward.
The U.S. Justice Department joined the suit in February, seeking to recover at least some of the $40 million that the Postal Service paid from 1998 to 2004 to have Armstrong and his teammates from Tailwind Sports wear its logo during cycling wins.
Armstrong won the Tour de France seven times, but was stripped of the titles and banned for life from cycling in 2012 on suspicion of using performance-enhancing drugs. He admitted this past January to doping.
His lawyers argued in court on Monday that the Postal Service benefited from the endorsement deal because of the valuable exposure it brought, and that the suit was brought too late to meet the requirements of the anti-fraud law.
Other defendants in the suit include the owners of Tailwind Sports, a company that dissolved in 2007. The defendants who remain could be forced to submit to evidence-gathering by Landis and the Justice Department.
"This case has been pending for quite a long time, and one way or another I intend to bring it to a resolution fairly quickly," Wilkins said.
The case is Landis v. Tailwind Sports Corp, et al, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, No. 1:10-cv-00976.
(Agencies)
BEIJING, March 23 (Xinhua) -- Despite a slight slowdown, China's economic growth will be more sustainable and benefit companies like Caterpillar, said Doug Oberhelman, chairman and CEO of U.S.-based construction and mining equipment manufacturer Caterpillar.
With the development of the Chinese economy, it is inevitable for the world's second largest economy to transit to a "new normal" period, Oberhelman said Monday in Beijing at a ceremony celebrating the 40th anniversary of its entry into the Chinese market.
China's gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 7.4 percent last year, its slowest pace since 1990.
A moderated economic growth rate will have positive implications in the long run and it will be conducive to China and the rest of the world, he said.
"There is still a long way for China to go" in developing its economy, as about 200 million Chinese people are still living in poverty, said Oberhelman, adding that the company is supporting China's sustainable growth in sectors like infrastructure, energy saving and emission reduction.
China's proposals to build the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, known as the "Belt and Road" initiatives, are "exciting" news, as they are creating the "single biggest construction project in the history of the planet" with a combined population of 4.4 billion along the belt and road, he said.
BEIJING, April 3 (Xinhuanet) -- Chinese banks' resilience to the growing popularity of Internet finance has been "so far, so good" and sector change will come as the industry catches the trend, analysts in Hong Kong said.
By the end of March, at least 11 banks had posted annual results. They show continued net-profit growth, 13.9 percent on average in 2013, three percentage points lower than the year before. That's in the limelight of Internet finance.
"Because of rising funding costs, the banking sector saw slower profit growth this year. Margins are narrowing," said Grace Wu, Hong Kong-based analyst of Daiwa Securities Group Inc. "The pressure isn't severe. Chinese banks still enjoy a loan price advantage. We maintain a stable outlook on sector margins this year."
Last June, Yu'ebao, a money market fund distributed online by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, raised the curtain on Internet finance's development. It featured flexible redemption and offered above-deposit returns. Investors arrived amid an inter-bank liquidity squeeze in the second half of 2013.
Other Internet companies followed - including Tencent Inc, Baidu Inc and Sina Corp - with similar products, drawing capital away from bank accounts and causing banks' funding costs to rise. By the end of February, China's money market fund had grown to 1.4 trillion yuan ($226.81 billion), 2.5 times bigger than it was in last May.
"People claim Internet finance is a huge challenge to commercial banks," Victor Wang, China banking analyst at Credit Suisse AG, told a forum in Hong Kong. "But in the short term, its impact will be rather limited."
"Number-wise, the total AUM (asset under management) of money market bonds is around 1 trillion yuan, which is less than 1 percent compared with Chinese banks' deposit base. Online financing activities, including peer-to-peer lending, are at the infant stage. They are small ticket relative to banks' lending size," he said.
Wang pointed out that a tightening regulatory environment means it's "unlikely" online financial activities will take a bigger market slice from banks.
"The dramatic development of Internet finance is challenging the regulatory framework," he said, adding Yu'ebao now manages 500 billion yuan of 80 million users, or 10 percent of China's economic population. "When a financial product is that big, any responsible regulator has to make sure it is safe and the potential risk of such products can be well-contained."
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