Landis to repay Fairness Fund donations to avoid jail time

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Floyd Landis will be arraigned in a U.S. District Court in San Diego on Friday morning where a deferred prosecution agreement will be put in place following a federal investigation into his Floyd Fairness Fund.

The Floyd Fairness Fund was launched in 2007 to raise money to pay for Landis' legal defense against the doping charges that ultimately lost him his 2006 Tour de France victory.

Landis vigorously denied he had used synthetic testosterone during the event, and challenged the accuracy of the lab tests that showed he did. But years later he admitted he had doped during his career, up to and including the 2006 Tour.

According to ESPN.com, Landis will avoid a conviction for wire fraud, jail and a $250,000 fine if he can repay 1,500 donors whose contributions totaled $478,354 in the next three years. Waivers will be required from the donors who do not wish to be repaid.

"I'm glad to have a concrete procedure for repayment in place," Landis told ESPN.com. "For me, taking the step of making restitution to the donors who were misled back then is one more step in righting the wrong choices I made and allows me to turn the page and to focus on what's next in life for me.

"I can never undo what happened, but to the extent that there are ways such as this that I can try to rectify things, I'll be more able to focus on the future and living an honest life after having done them."