Champion Simon Piles and more than 90 American gymnasts are suing the FBI today, demanding $ 1 billion in damages for “negligence” in a sexual abuse scandal involving former doctor Larry Nasser.
“When the attack that first killed me was first reported in September 2015, the FBI knew that Larry Nasser was a danger to children,” said Gymnast Maggie Nichols, citing a report by law firm Manley, Stewart and Vinaldi.
He accused FBI officials of “working with the USA Gymnastics Federation and the US Olympic Committee to” hide this information from the public for 421 days “, which allowed Nasser to continue attacking women and young women. Larry Nasser, 58, has been serving a life sentence for sexually abusing more than 300 female athletes in the two decades between 1996 and 2014, including female stars from the national team that competed in the London 2012 Olympics and Rio de Janeiro. 2016. She also worked for the USA Gymnastics Association there, and at Michigan State University and the Gymnastics Club.
The first complaints against him were filed in July 2015 at the local FBI office in Indianapolis.
The investigation was soon dropped and the FBI took another report in May 2016 to launch a new investigation.
In its indictment, the Inspectorate General of the Judiciary stated that FBI agents had “made a number of fundamental mistakes and violated many FBI rules.”
Despite this, the ministry announced in late May that it would not prosecute the erring officials. However, former Olympic champion McKayla Maroney said in the same statement, “I and the other victims have been betrayed by all the organizations that are supposed to protect us.”
“It is clear that our only path to justice and treatment is through legal procedures,” he added.
In September 2021, Maroni, Piles and Nichols appeared before a Senate panel to criticize the inaction of sports officials and the police in facing charges against Nasser.
The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
He later apologized to the victims by the doctor, admitting that “the fundamental mistakes made in 2015 and 2016 should never have happened”. In December 2021, US sports officials agreed to pay $ 380 million in compensation to Larry Nasser’s victims.
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