Feds claim Yankees star A-Rod paid personal assistant $900K to keep quiet
Alex Rodriguez. s_bukley / Shutterstock.com
An expensive settlement of a dispute over an employment agreement between New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez and a cousin who worked as his personal assistant came to light when the cousin was criminally charged in a Florida case and claimed to be indigent.
In a filing in federal district court in Miami last week, the U.S. government says Rodriguez paid his cousin, Yuri Sucart, a total of $900,000 last year, as well as giving him a car, medical insurance and the potential lifetime use of a five-bedroom home to settle a threatened lawsuit, according to the Associated Press and the New York Daily News.
Sucart had suggested in a December 2012 letter from his lawyer to Rodriguez that he would “maintain his silence” about the claimed extent of A-Rod’s use of performance-enhancing drugs if a settlement was reached, the feds say.
“Unfortunately for you, litigation with you over his employment agreement will reveal all of the duties you instructed Yuri to perform, so he can prove in court what he earned, what you owe him for services rendered and what you promised,” wrote Sucart’s attorney, Jeffrey Sonn, in the Dec. 18, 2012, letter.
He also wrote: “Due to your use of performance-enhancing substances, Yuri was wrongly blamed. Nonetheless, Yuri remains able and willing to continue to serve you and your needs as a personal assistant, within the restrictions that baseball has placed upon him. He does not wish to and does not intend to ever speak to the MLB unless he is subpoenaed.”
In a Tuesday interview with CNN, Sonn said that “this was not a threat,” explaining that the letter was about Rodriguez’ “promise to employ Yuri Sucart for life and his breach of that agreement.”
A New York Daily News story says Sonn described the employment dispute as “a simple case about breach of contract for employment for life under Florida law.”
Attorney Joseph Tacopina represents Rodriguez. He could not be reached for comment, CNN said.
“At some point in the future, Alex will have something to say,” a spokesman for Rodriguez old ESPN New York on Monday. “Today is not the time. When it is time, everyone will hear from Alex.”
The settlement came to light after Sucart was charged in August, in federal court in Miami, with conspiring to distribute testosterone and human growth hormone. A February trial is scheduled in that case, and Sucart has pleaded not guilty.
Sucart obtained a public defender to represent him, claiming indigency, prompting the feds to obtain his income records. On Monday, a judge ordered Sucart to pay his court-appointed lawyer $600 per month.
The case concerns Sucart’s alleged efforts to recruit athletes who paid a now-shuttered Florida anti-aging clinic, Biogenesis of America, up to $12,000 per month for drugs. The drugs, they were promised, would not show up in tests, the AP article explains.
Meanwhile, Rodriguez may be a witness against Sucart and agreed early this year to talk to federal prosecutors under what the Daily News calls a “queen for a day” immunity pact that limits use of the information provided, the newspaper reported in an article that relies on unidentified sources.
The government said in a letter addressed to Tacopina before the agreement was reached that prosecutors would not use information provided by Rodriguez against him, the Daily News reports. However, as a condition of the pact, “all statements and information provided by Mr. Rodriguez must be truthful and complete. He must not seek to protect anyone through false information or willful admission, and must not falsely accuse or implicate anyone,” the letter says.
A CBS New York article provides more details about the Florida case against Sucart.
