Larry Nassar: US Department of Justice will pay $138.7 million to victims of sexual harassment

Updated 4 hours ago

The US Department of Justice will pay $138.7 million in damages to the victims of national gymnastics team doctor Larry Nasser.

In the lawsuit filed two years ago, Nasser’s victims alleged that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) did not take complaints of sexual assault seriously.

Among the 139 complainants are US Olympic gold medalist gymnasts Simone Biles, Aly Raisman and Mckayla Maroney.

Nassar is currently serving a 175-year prison sentence for sexual assault.

In 2021, the Justice Department’s Auditor General concluded that the FBI disregarded the allegations against Nassar and made a series of errors.

The FBI’s investigation into Nassar began in 2015, but the Oversight Agency found errors in the investigation and noted that Nassar continued to see patients more than a year after the initial complaint.

Many of the complainants said they were sexually assaulted after Nassar’s abuse was first reported in 2015. Most of the victims were athletes in Nassar’s USA Gymnastics Program or at Michigan State University, where his clinic was located.

“For decades, Nasser abused his position and betrayed the trust of those in his care without accountability,” Justice Department official Benjamin C Mizer said in a statement regarding the compensation agreement. These allegations should have been taken seriously from the very beginning. “This compensation will not repair the damage Nassar has done, but our hope is that it will provide some of the victims of his crimes with critical support to continue to heal.”

Mckayla Maroney said in her statement in 2022 that Nassar’s victims were betrayed by every institution tasked with protecting them, the US Olympic Committee, the US Gymnastics Team, the FBI and the Department of Justice.

Legal settlements resulting from Nassar’s crimes have exceeded $1 billion.

Michigan State University agreed to pay $500 million to the victims in 2018, and the USA Gymnastics Team and the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee reached a compensation agreement of $380 million.

In total, 330 women accused Nassar of sexual assault. Nassar was stabbed by another inmate in Florida prison last year and escaped at the last minute.