Abroad did not help him – Kommersant

The first ever criminal case initiated by the US authorities on the basis of the infamous “Rodchenkov Law” will end in a guilty verdict. Passing through it, Texas naturopath Eric Lira pleaded guilty to doping athletes, and made a deal with the prosecution to avoid the maximum ten-year sentence. Manhattan Attorney Damien Williams called the incident a “watershed” in the history of international sports. The thing is that the “Rodchenkov’s law” that has shown its effectiveness is extraterritorial in nature and allows the US authorities to prosecute violators of the anti-doping regulations, regardless of where they committed the act.

The Manhattan prosecutor’s office announced that it had brought to a guilty verdict the first ever case initiated on the basis of the infamous “Rodchenkov law” named named after the former head of the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory, Grigory Rodchenkov. It was his statements, made after fleeing to the United States, that formed the basis of the Russian doping scandal. On Monday, Eric Lira, who was under investigation last year, pleaded guilty to supplied the silver medalist of the 2008 Games in long jump Nigerian Blessing Okagbare (already serving an 11-year suspension), as well as her compatriot, four-time NCAA (US Collegiate Athletic Association) champion sprinter Devine Oduduru (he faces a six-year exclusion from sports).

The prosecutor’s office did not say under what conditions Mr. Lira made a deal with the prosecution, but it is reasonable to assume that the punishment agreed upon by the parties will be much milder than the maximum provided by law – ten years and a $1 million fine.

Manhattan Attorney Damien Williams called the incident a “watershed” in the history of international sports, noting that “an arrogant attempt to endanger the integrity of international sport will not go unpunished.”

Interest in the case is due to the peculiarities of the “Rodchenkov law”, primarily its extraterritorial nature. The law provides US law enforcement with the ability to prosecute anti-doping rule violators outside the country, and it covers violations committed in all international competitions affecting US interests, including the Olympics. We are talking specifically about the persons contributing to the spread of doping, but does not concern the athletes themselves. It, by analogy with laws aimed at combating the spread of drugs, does not affect the actual users of substances. For a tournament to be classified as subject to the “Rodchenkov Law”, it is enough that the organizers of the competitions or the international sports federation sanctioning them receive financial support from companies doing business in the United States (the leading American leagues are excluded from the law).

At the same time, the law gives the authorities the right to listen in on the conversations of athletes and persons suspected of involvement in doping violations. This is what allowed Eric Lira to be convicted of selling growth hormone (HGH) and erythropoietin (EPO) to athletes, as well as giving advice on the use of drugs.

At the same time, the fact that he purchased drugs and transferred them to athletes abroad did not help him in any way.

It should be noted that the “Rodchenkov’s law” already in the process of discussion caused a very negative reaction from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). A WADA statement back in 2020 noted that the law could create “chaos” in the global anti-doping system, characterized by “legal unpredictability”. Unpredictability will be expressed, for example, in the “competition” of various national legal systems that interpret violations differently, and therefore will lead to a violation of the “harmony” of the anti-doping system, its “loosening and weakening”. And Eric Lear’s lawyers even tried to convince the court that the law was inconsistent with the US constitution. The highly controversial extraterritoriality of the law did not bother them. But what was worrying was that the law relies on the World Anti-Doping Code, which means it gives a foreign organization illegal influence on domestic affairs. The arguments of WADA, when the law passed through the Congress and the President of the United States, or the defense of Eric Lear, were not heard already in the court of Manhattan. The “Rodchenkov Law” has begun to work, and it is possible that new cases based on it may soon appear.

Alexander Petrov