Simone Biles, other Larry Nassar victims seek more than $1B from FBI

DETROIT — Four-time Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles and several other gymnasts are seeking more than $1 billion from the Federal Bureau of Investigation for failing to stop a sports doctor from molesting athletes, The Associated Press is reporting.

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According to the news agency, the 25-year-old Biles and Olympic gold medalists Aly Raisman, 28, and McKayla Maroney, 26, are among 90 plaintiffs in the tort claims, California law firm Manly, Stewart & Finaldi said Wednesday.

In July 2015, USA Gymnastics informed FBI agents in Indianapolis of sexual abuse allegations against Larry Nassar, a team doctor who also worked at Michigan State University, according to the AP and The New York Times. Despite that report, the FBI didn’t begin a formal investigation or alert federal or Michigan state authorities, the Justice Department’s inspector general said.

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The next year, FBI agents in Los Angeles began to investigate sexual tourism allegations against Nassar, the AP reported. Those agents also failed to notify Michigan authorities of the case, according to the inspector general.

Following an investigation led by Michigan State University police, Nassar was arrested in fall 2016, according to the AP. The state’s Attorney General’s Office ended up handling the assault case, while federal prosecutors in Michigan began a child pornography investigation against Nassar, the news agency reported. Nassar ultimately received multiple decades-long prison sentences.

“If the FBI had simply done its job, Nassar would have been stopped before he ever had the chance to abuse hundreds of girls, including me,” former University of Michigan gymnast Samantha Roy said of the yearlong gap between the allegations against Nassar and his arrest.

The Justice Department announced in May that there wasn’t enough information available to criminally charge two former agents from the Indianapolis field office who failed to act quickly enough, then likely provided “inaccurate or incomplete information” about what happened, the AP reported.

The FBI must respond to the tort claims within six months, according to the AP.

– The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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