Howard Jacobs, a lawyer who was part of the team with which Simona Halep appeared at the CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport), stated in an interview for Sports Illustrated that the ITIA (International Tennis Integrity Agency) would have spent almost two million of euros to prove the guilt of the former WTA leader.
Jacobs presented some details from the doping process, as a result of which Simona received a reduction of her sentence from 4 years to 9 months after the TAS decision.
“I do not know what happened. I mean, it’s hard to say. I always believed that the biological passport file was not well founded. I never understood this case. And, with Roxadustat, normally you give them (no anti-doping authorities) evidence that it is contaminated and either you agree with the sanction or you fight for the sanction. But it doesn’t come to a case like this.
I don’t think I’ve ever had a case as strange as this…. The case has become very, very complicated. I can’t even imagine how much money they spent on the process. I can’t even imagine. I’m going to say at least $2 million, because they had so many experts and so many lawyers and everything was contested,” Howard Jacobs said.