The U.S. Justice Department is going to pay $100 million to 100 victims of former Team USA doctor Larry Nassar over the FBI's failures in the investigation, according to reports.
The deal, once it is finalized, will end the last legal claims against institutions involved in the Nassar investigations. It will also bring the total settlement amount for all the legal cases against him to nearly $1 billion.
Nassar was sentenced to up to 175 years in prison in 2018 after he admitted to sexually assaulting girls under the guise of medical treatment while serving as the team doctor for Indianapolis-based USA Gymnastics, which trains Olympians, and Michigan State gymnastics.
An internal investigation by the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General, completed in July 2021, found that FBI agents mishandled abuse allegations by women more than a year before Nassar was arrested in 2016.
The report indicates that FBI agents in Indianapolis and Los Angeles had knowledge of allegations against Nassar beginning in 2015, but apparently took no action -- they failed to notify the appropriate FBI office in Michigan, and they failed to take other steps to end the ongoing threat posed by Nassar.
According to the report, the FBI first received allegations against Nassar in July 2015 following a USA Gymnastics internal investigation into complaints of sexual assault by Nassar against multiple gymnasts. But officials at the Indianapolis Field Office "made fundamental errors" and did not respond with "the urgency that the allegations required," the report found. Although agents initially "conducted limited follow-up," the office did not formally open an investigation or assessment of the matter.
After eight months of FBI inactivity, USA Gymnastics officials contacted the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office in May 2016 to report the same allegations that it had provided to the Indianapolis office in July 2015. This time, agents opened a federal sexual tourism investigation against Nassar and took numerous investigative steps, including interviewing several alleged victims, according to the report. However, like the Indianapolis Field Office, the report notes the Los Angeles Field Office did not reach out to any state or local authorities, and did not take any action to mitigate the risk to gymnasts that Nassar continued to treat.
In August 2016, the Michigan State University Police Department received a separate complaint from a gymnast who said she was abused by Nassar when she was 16-years-old. Two weeks later, The Indianapolis Star ran a news story
describing sexual assault allegations against Nassar by former gymnasts. MSU police then received similar complaints against Nassar from dozens of additional young women and in September 2016, a search warrant was executed at Nassar's home and authorities discovered child pornography.
As a result of the news stories and search at Nassar's home, the FBI office in Lansing finally first learned of the allegations and opened its own investigation in October 2016, according to the report.
Civil court documents show approximately 70 or more young athletes were sexually abused by Nassar under the guise of medical treatment between July 2015, when USA Gymnastics first reported the allegations to the FBI, and September 2016 when he was arrested.
"For many of the approximately 70 or more athletes, the abuse by Nassar began before the FBI first became aware of allegations against Nassar and continued into 2016. For others, the alleged abuse began after USA Gymnastics reported the Nassar allegations to the Indianapolis Field Office in July 2015," the report noted.
Over 330 women accused Nassar of sexual misconduct. More than 150 victims spoke or submitted statements during a seven-day hearing, including Olympians Simone Biles, Jordyn Wieber and McKayla Maroney, and former Team USA member Maggie Nichols.
Nassar was also convicted on separate child pornography charges and sentenced to 60 years in prison.