By Madison Anidjar
Staff Writer
The Department of Justice has reached a $138.7 million settlement with victims of former USA Gymnastics doctor and convicted sex offender Larry Nassar. The athletes say that the Federal Bureau of Investigation failed to protect them after receiving several “credible complaints” and “corroborating evidence” of his crimes.
The settlement stems from a 2022 lawsuit in which 13 women came together to file a claim against the Department of Justice for alleged negligence in investigating allegations against Nassar. Later that year, 90 more women filed suit, including Olympic gold medalists Simone Biles, Aly Raisman and McKayla Maroney.
"The FBI fundamentally failed to protect hundreds of women and girls from sexual abuse through inaction and total mishandling of their Larry Nassar investigation," said lawyers Megan Bonanni and Michael Pitt in a statement.
The lawsuits came after an Office of the Inspector General report that looked into how the FBI handled its investigation of Nassar.
In 2015, the FBI received complaints that three young athletes had been sexually abused by Nassar, but the case did not advance for more than a year.
The Inspector General report concluded that the FBI Indianapolis Field Office failed to respond to allegations against Nassar, including failing to act with the “utmost seriousness and urgency,” making “numerous and fundamental errors” and failing “to notify state or local authorities of the allegations or take other steps to mitigate the ongoing threat posed by Nassar.”
The head of the Indianapolis Field Office, W. Jay Abbott, was also accused of making false statements in an effort to cover up his office’s failure to report and investigate Nassar’s crimes.
USA Gymnastics stars Biles, Raisman, Maroney and Maggie Nichols testified before Congress during a 2021 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing about the FBI’s failure to put a stop to Nassar’s abuse.
Maroney laid out her experience as one of the first victims to tell FBI agents about the abuse she endured.
“My story is one in which Special Agent in Charge Jay Abbott and his subordinates did not want you to hear, and it’s time that I tell you,” said Maroney.
She told the committee that in 2015 she spent hours on the phone with the FBI, detailing the many times Nassar molested her.
“After telling my entire story of abuse to the FBI in the summer of 2015, not only did the FBI not report my abuse, but when they eventually documented my report 17 months later, they made entirely false claims about what I said,” Maroney told senators.
Gymnasts have previously sued Nassar’s former employers, Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics. In 2018, Michigan State University agreed to pay a $500 million settlement to more than 300 women and girls abused by Nassar between the 1990s and 2010s. The deal also set aside a portion of the settlement in the event that more claimants come forward in the future.
USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee also reached a $380 million settlement with more than 500 gymnasts in 2021. Under the terms of the settlement, USA Gymnastics also agreed to create a restorative justice program and to place a survivor of abuse on the board of directors.
In total, the three settlements will pay out close to $1 billion to hundreds of victims.
Following the recent settlement, the Department of Justice published a press release in which Acting Associate Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer expressed regret for the decades that Nassar “skirt[ed] accountability.”
“These allegations should have been taken seriously from the outset,” said Mizer. “While these settlements won’t undo the harm Nassar inflicted, our hope is that they will help give the victims of his crimes some of the critical support they need to continue healing.”
