Now Lance Armstrong Might Rat Out Banking Legend Thomas Weisel

And now the attention is turning to the money-man at the top—the legendary San Francisco-based investment banker Thomas Weisel, who founded and sold Montgomery Securities and Thomas Weisel Partners.

Weisel bankrolled the cycling team that Lance Armstrong rode for. And Weisel was on hand for every one of Lance Armstrong's seven Tour victories.

Weisel is named as a defendant in the "whistleblower" lawsuit brought by Armstrong's former teammate Floyd Landis, who was himself busted for doping and stripped of a Tour title.

Weisel has denied having any knowledge of the team's doping, and he removed a collection of Lance Armstrong's yellow jerseys from his office after the USADA brought its charges against Armstrong.

But now, reports Susanne Craig at DealBook, Armstrong may blow the whistle on Weisel, in hopes of persuading sports regulators to allow him to compete again:

Since October, when the anti-doping report was issued, Mr. Weisel has found himself in the middle of a media storm. The report did not name Mr. Weisel, but did say that a “small army of enablers, including doping doctors, drug smugglers, and others within and outside the sport and on his team” helped Mr. Armstrong.

Mr. Armstrong, in hopes of mitigating his lifetime ban from Olympic sports, might implicate Mr. Weisel and other team owners, according to people briefed on the case. So far, Mr. Weisel said, neither Mr. Armstrong nor any rider on the team has said that he discussed doping with Mr. Weisel or that he witnessed Mr. Weisel participate in or observe any act of doping.

For Lance Armstrong to sell out a team-mate as a way of furthering his own aims won't come as a surprise to those who have watched his behavior in recent years.

But it won't help Thom Weisel much, either.

SEE ALSO: Here's My Verdict On The Lance Armstrong Interview