disqualification On December 12, 2007, the IOC formally stripped Jones of all five Olympic medals dating back to September 2000, and banned her from attending the 2008 Summer Olympics in any capacity. The IOC action also officially disqualified Jones from her fifth-place finish in the Long Jump at the 2004 Summer Olympics. On October 28, 2008, Jones was interviewed by Oprah Winfrey and stated that she would have won gold at the Sydney Olympics without the drugs that led to her disgrace. Financial troubles Seven years after winning a women's record five Olympic track and field medals and receiving multimillion-dollar endorsement deals, Jones was broke. According to the Associated Press, Jones was heavily in debt and fighting off court judgments, according to court records reviewed by the Los Angeles Times. In 2006, a bank foreclosed on her $2.5-million mansion near Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where Michael Jordan was a neighbor. She was also forced to sell two other properties, including her mother's house, to raise money. In her prime, Jones was one of track's first female sports millionaires, typically earning between $70,000 and $80,000 a race, plus at least another $1 million from race bonuses and endorsement deals. Involvement in check fraud In July 2006, Jones was linked to a check-counterfeiting scheme that led to criminal charges against her coach and former boyfriend Montgomery. Documents showed that a $25,000 check made out to Jones was deposited in her bank account as part of the alleged multimillion-dollar scheme. Prosecutors alleged that funds were sent to Jones' track coach, 1976 Olympic gold medalist Steve Riddick, in Virginia, then funneled back to New York through a network of "friends, relatives and associates." Riddick was arrested in February on money-laundering charges. According to the indictment and subsequent documents filed with the court, the link to Jones was made through one of Riddick's business partners, Nathaniel Alexander. On October 5, 2007, Jones pleaded guilty to making false statements to IRS Special Agent Jeff Novitzky leading the ongoing BALCO investigation in California. Jones claimed she had never taken performance-enhancing drugs. "That was a lie, your honor," she said from the defense table. The federal government, through grand juries, had been investigating steroid abuse since 2003. Jones also pleaded guilty to making false statements about her knowledge of a check-cashing scheme to New York U.S. Department of Homeland Security Special Agent Erik Rosenblatt, who has been leading