Former World Champion Romans Vainšteins has been arrested in Italy and faces a four-month prison sentence after failing to keep up with alimony payments.
Vainšteins, 52, was arrested at Orio al Serio airport in Bergamo after landing on flight from Riga after his ex-wife, a former resident of Italy, filed a case against him over non-payment of a child support obligation.
According to L'Eco di Bergamo, the Latvian owes €70,000 after initially making regular monthly payments following his divorce in 2001 and up to 2009, only for them to become more intermittent to 2012 and stopping entirely between 2013 and 2018. That year he was sentenced to a four-month prison sentence and a 300 euro fine, and a warrant was issued for his arrest, but he has yet to serve the sentence.
The highlight of Vainšteins' career was when he became Road World Champion in Plouay, France, in 2000 with an unexpected last-minute dash to the line that saw him outpace Poland's Zbigniew Spruch and 1999 rainbow jersey winner Oscar Freire. Vainšteins also took four stages of Tirreno-Adriatico and one in the Giro d'Italia in 1999 in a career that lasted a scant seven years.
According to Latvia media outlet LSM, Vainšteins continued working in Italy after his retirement, but in 2016 moved back to his home country. He was then briefly head of the Latvian cycling team, but quit after five months.
