Justice department to pay survivors of Nassar abuse $138m
By Bernd Debusmann Jr
The US justice department will pay $138.7m (£110m) to survivors of disgraced national gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar.
In a 2022 lawsuit, some of Nassar’s victims alleged that the FBI mishandled credible complaints of sexual assaults and failed to take them seriously.
The 139 claimants included US Olympic gymnastics gold medallists Simone Biles, Aly Raisman and McKayla Maroney.
Nassar is currently serving up to 175 years in prison for sexual assault.
In 2021, the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General, which serves as a watchdog for the FBI, concluded that the agency disregarded allegations about Nassar and made a raft of errors.
The FBI investigation into Nassar began in 2015, but the inspector found mistakes in the inquiry, including a failure to formally document meeting with USA Gymnastics officials after they concluded their own five-week internal probe into Nassar’s behaviour. It also cited a failure to contact state and local authorities about the potential risk he continued to pose to athletes.
Nassar continued to see patients for over a year after allegations against him were first made to the FBI.
