Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that defendant ERIC LIRA pled guilty today for his role in providing banned performance-enhancing drugs (“PEDs”) to Olympic athletes in advance of the 2020 Olympic Games held in Tokyo in the summer of 2021. LIRA is the first defendant to be charged under the Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act, signed into law on December 4, 2020, which proscribes doping schemes for the purpose of influencing international sports competitions, including the Olympic Games. LIRA pled guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Valerie Figueredo.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “This conviction is a watershed moment for international sport. Lira provided banned performance-enhancing substances to Olympic athletes who wanted to corruptly gain a competitive edge. Such craven efforts to undermine the integrity of sport subverts the purpose of the Olympic games: to showcase athletic excellence through a level playing field. Lira’s efforts to pervert that goal will not go unpunished.”
According to the allegations contained in the Complaint, the Indictment, other filings in this case, and statements during court proceedings:
The charges in this case arise from an investigation of a scheme to provide Olympic athletes with PEDs, including drugs widely banned throughout competitive sports, such as human growth hormone...
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