The U.S. Department of Justice reported a $138.7 million settlement with 139 victims of sexual abuse by former gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar.
The Department of Justice explained that “these agreements will resolve administrative claims against the United States” and stressed that the FBI “did not conduct an adequate investigation of Nassar’s conduct.”
The acting Deputy Attorney General, Benjamin C. Mizer, said in the statement that the accusations “should have been taken seriously from the start” and noted that “while these agreements will not remedy the damage that Nassar inflicted, our hope is that they will help provide victims of his crimes with some of the critical support they need to continue healing.”
Nassar was the doctor of the U.S. gymnastics team for 18 years and also served at the University of Michigan. In 2015, the Federation informed the FBI that three athletes had reported being abused, but the agency decided not to conduct a formal investigation. Finally, the doctor was arrested in 2016 after abusing hundreds of women under the pretext of performing treatments and ended up being sentenced to 175 years in prison.
“For decades, Lawrence Nassar abused his office, betraying the trust of those under his medical care and supervision and evading accountability,” Mizer said. The Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Justice, in 2021, had already issued a report outlining the actions of the FBI and how the investigation had been carried out.
This is not the first economic agreement with victims: Michigan State University agreed in 2018 to a payment of 500 million dollars with 332 complainants, while in 2021 the Federation reached a settlement with nearly 500 victims for 380 million dollars.
John Manly, lawyer for the victims of Nassar, told CNN after learning about the ruling: “It’s on a certain level to feel victorious, but also on a certain level a deep sadness to know that, if the FBI had acted when this was reported, more than 100 children would not have been abused by Larry Nassar. It brings to an end one of the darkest, if not the darkest, chapters in the history of American sports.”
Nassar’s victims include Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas, Sabrina Vega, Ashton Locklear, Kyla Ross and Alyssa Baumann.
Últimas Noticias
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Beyond the final result, Roland Garros left the feeling that the Italian and the Spaniard will shape the great duel that came to help us through the duel for the end of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era.
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
She is the third in her sport and the seventh athlete to achieve it in the same edition; in Santiago 2023 she was the first athlete with disabilities to compete at the Pan American level and won a medal.
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Argentinian Rodrigo Isgró received a five-game suspension for an indiscipline in the circuit’s decisive clash that would exclude him until the final or the bronze match; the Federation will seek to make the appeal successful.
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
The Kenyan received the maximum sanction for irregularities in his biological passport and the Court considered that he was part of a system of “deliberate and sophisticated doping” to improve his performance. He will lose his record and the bronze medal at the Doha World Cup.
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
The American, a seven-time Olympic champion, referred to the case of the 23 positive controls before the Tokyo Games that were announced a few weeks ago and shook the swimming world. “I think our faith in some of the systems is at an all-time low,” he said.
