- Justice Department Agrees to Pay More Than $100 Million to Larry Nassar Victims
- FBI agents did not take reports of Nassar’s abuse seriously
- This brings the sum of total payments to more than $1 billion.
The Justice Department has agreed to pay $100 million to 100 victims of former Team USA gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar, who sexually abused them.
Reports of Nassar’s possible abuse of star athletes were not taken seriously by FBI agents, the Justice Department determined.
The total price of liability payments for Nassar’s actions has now amounted to more than $1 billion, Wall Street Journal reported.
Michigan State University agreed to settle with hundreds of victims for $500 million in 2018, after complaints about Nassar’s abuse were dismissed and buried multiple times.
Star gymnasts such as Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney, Maggie Nichols and Aly Raisman spoke out against their former doctor.
The Justice Department has agreed to pay $100 million to 100 victims of former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar, who sexually abused them.
The elite gymnasts were first identified in the summer of 2015 as potentially abused by Nassar, 60.
They are among dozens of other patients who suffered abuse at the hands of the former gymnastics team doctor even after the FBI was alerted to the gymnasts’ concerns.
Nassar was sentenced to a minimum of 40 years and a maximum of 175 years in prison for sexual assault of minors in January 2018.
Upon release, Nassar would have to register as a sex offender in Michigan. However, his federal and state sentences are consecutive, meaning he will essentially die in prison.
Nassar apologized for his years of abuse and said the strong effects his victims’ statements had on him “pale in comparison” to the suffering he inflicted on them.
During victim impact statements in 2018, several athletes testified that during Nassar’s decades of sexual abuse they had told adults about what was happening, including coaches and athletic trainers, but that it was not reported.
More than 150 victims spoke or submitted statements during an extraordinary seven-day court hearing more than four years ago.
In June 2022, the Michigan Supreme Court rejected Nassar’s final appeal, which was filed on the basis that he had been “unfairly treated.”
Nassar admitted to sexually assaulting female athletes while he worked at Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics, which trains Olympic athletes. In the photo: Nassar with McKayla Maroney
In June 2022, the Michigan Supreme Court rejected Nassar’s final appeal, which was filed on the basis that he had been “unfairly treated.”
Nassar is serving up to 175 years in prison in Florida for abusing some of the country’s best athletes.
The sex offender was stabbed 10 times at the United States Penitentiary in Coleman, Florida, on July 9, 2023.
However, the attack was considered an “unwitnessed” event because there are no cameras inside the prison cell, according to a source. Only common areas and hallways are monitored by video.
USA Gymnastics filed for bankruptcy in 2018, after Olympic bronze medalist Jamie Dantzscher filed a lawsuit and additional claims were filed on behalf of a growing number of Nassar’s victims.