A US insurer that underwrote performance bonuses paid to Lance Armstrong after winning his sixth Tour de France is preparing to sue the former champion cyclist.

The release of a US Anti-Doping Agency report this month, which portrayed Mr Armstrong as the architect of an elaborate doping scheme, has prompted Dallas-based insurer SCA Promotions to investigate options for recovering more than $US7.5 million ($7.23 million) paid to Mr Armstrong following an arbitration hearing in 2006.

“He basically said that we were scum and how dare we criticise him,” Jeffrey Tillotson, the lawyer representing SCA Promotions, 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 $US7.5 million’.”

SCA Promotions must wait for the sport’s peak body, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), to deliver its own ruling before launching any court action. The UCI has until October 31 to either affirm the US report and strip Mr Armstrong of his seven Tour de France titles or refer the case to the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport.

The UCI is expected to announce its decision by the end of this week.

After Mr Armstrong’s victories in the 2001, 2002 and 2003 Tour de France, US Postal Service owner Tailwind Sports took out an insurance contract with SCA Promotions to cover performance bonuses if Mr Armstrong won the 2004 Tour de France. SCA had paid the US Postal Service $US4.5 million ($4.34 million) for Mr Armstrong’s victories between 2001 and 2003, and was liable to pay another $US5 million ($4.82 million) should he win again.

Mr Armstrong won the 2004 Tour de France, but SCA Promotions refused to pay following the release of a French book, LA Confidentiel, which detailed doping allegations against Mr Armstrong.

Following an arbitration hearing in January 2006 – tapes of which were recently screened for the first time by the ABC’s Four Corners program – SCA Promotions settled with Mr Armstrong for $US7.5 million.

One of Mr Armstrong’s lawyers, Tim Herman, told the New York Times that under the terms of the 2006 settlement, SCA Promotions was prevented from ever reopening the case. However, Mr Tillotson said circumstances have altered the terms of the agreement.

Another company caught in the doping scandal – albeit one that will never recover any money – is US pharmacy chain Thrift Drug. The company, which closed in 1997, sponsored the Triple Crown of Cycling race in 1993 and agreed to pay $US1 million ($964,000) to any cyclist which won all three events, held in Pittsburgh, Virginia and Philadelphia.

Thrift Drug took out a policy with an insurance company to cover the prize money, which was awarded to Mr Armstrong after he won the CoreStates USPRO national championship in Philadelphia.

However, tapes of the 2006 arbitration hearing screened by Four Corners last week contained allegations by former cyclist Stephen Swart that riders of the Coors Light team were offered a $US50,000 ($48,226) bribe to allow Mr Armstrong to win.

Former US cyclist Steve Tilford has since backed up Mr Swart’s testimony in his blog, writing he had strong suspicions at the time that cyclists had been “bought”.

Claims of cash bribes were also made in LA Confidentiel.

“We found ourselves in Lance’s room with a seasoned professional,” Mr Swart told the authors. “They offered us $US50,000 if we didn’t try to beat them. Of course, our agreement had to remain confidential because the prize of $US1 million was guaranteed by an insurance company.

“If it came out, it would amount to fraud, and the insurance company would have refused to pay.”