Biogenesis scandal refuses to die even after three years

Jul 15, 2016 23:50 GMT  ·  By

The owner of a training and sports medicine clinic sued the Major League Baseball on Thursday, alleging being hacked by MLB employees during the infamous Biogenesis doping scandal of 2013.

The plaintiff is Neiman Nix, a former MLB player for the Cincinnati Reds in the '90s, who went on to found the DNA Sports Performance Lab, a training and sports medicine clinic based in Miami Beach, Florida.

MLB employees hacked Facebook, PayPal, and YouTube accounts

According to ESPN, Nix said the MLB and its investigators "illegally gained access to electronic accounts of individuals they investigated through various exploits and phishing schemes. We believe these tactics may have extended to players, team staff and ownership groups."

Nix claims that MLB representatives illegally gained access to his company's and clients' Facebook, PayPal, and YouTube accounts during their investigation.

The plaintiff adds that one of the three MLB investigators, Ed Dominguez, is now cooperating and will testify in support of his accusations.

Nix is suing the MBL organization, current commissioner Rob Manfred, former commissioner Bud Selig, MLB investigator Awilda Santana, and MLB vice-president of information security Neil Boland.

Nix tried and failed to sue the MLB in 2014

The plaintiff previously tried to sue the same individuals in 2014, along with two other MBL investigators who are now no longer with the MLB.

That lawsuit was dismissed eight months later, in November 2014, after the plaintiff had failed to serve court papers to the accused and show up for court meetings. In that lawsuit, Nix accused the MLB and its employees of defamation, slander, and tortious interference.

The lawsuit revolves around the Biogenesis doping scandal that arose in 2013, which concluded with the MLB suspending 14 players, including New York Yankees superstar Alex Rodriguez.

Nix's clinic was one of the locations where athletes received banned substances. Nix admitted to providing bioidentical insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) extracted from elk antlers.

Below is the MLB's official statement on Nix's lawsuit provided to Vice Sports. The MLB called the lawsuit "frivolous."

  The lawsuit filed today by Neiman Nix against MLB repeats many of the same allegations he asserted in a Florida lawsuit that was dismissed in 2014. Mr. Nix's new attorney, Vincent White, has in the past made outrageous claims about MLB. Mr. White's purported source for this lawsuit is a disgruntled former MLB employee who was terminated for cause. Mr. White has been threatening to file this lawsuit for months in an attempt to coerce MLB into paying his client. MLB considers the allegations in this lawsuit, including the allegations relating to the hacking of DNA Sport Lab's social media accounts, to be sanctionable under New York law. Other than noting that in Paragraph 40 of the Complaint Mr. Nix admits to selling products purportedly containing at least one banned performance-enhancing substance (IGF-1), MLB has no further comment on this frivolous lawsuit.