Lance Armstrong made payments to an Italian physician banned for doping through a front company in Switzerland, an Italian newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The Corriere della Sera daily said the seven-time Tour de France winner directed funds to a company in the Neuchatel region called Health and Performance. Citing work by Swiss and Italian investigators, Corriere said that Michele Ferrari, a banned Italian physician who was once Armstrong's training adviser, was behind the "anonymous company now in liquidation."

Ferrari was cleared in 2006 of criminal charges accusing him of distributing doping products to athletes, but he remains barred for life by the Italian Cycling Federation under a 2002 ruling. Armstrong has long denied doping and has never tested positive.

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