Alex Rodriguez, who just finished his season-long ban for performance enhancing drugs, had apparently agreed to pay his cousin Yuri Sucart $700,000 for his silence, in addition to three more payments which all together added up to nearly $1 million.
I guess blood isn’t always thicker than water because according to NY Daily News, Sucart threatened to expose Rodriguez doping secrets unless he gave him money; the court papers were filed last week in a District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
In 2012, Sucart’s former attorney had demanded $5 million and an estate for Sucart and his wife, according to court papers. However, by this time A-Rod had already made a limited confession of steroid use in 2009 when he said in a press conference that he had decided to use steroids given to him by his cousin from 2001-2003.
Sucart is a defendant in the Biogenesis federal case and pleaded not guilty in the case. This being said, A-Rod could potentially be a witness against his cousin in the case.
A-Rod received the letter demanding money just as the MLB investigations became more serious; he didn’t start paying his cousin until two months before MLB commissioner Bud Selig suspended him for 162 games plus the postseason.
Sucart’s attorney wrote this referencing A-Rod’s refusals to continue to pay Sucart for his past services:
“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.”
The letter continued:
“Given the sudden breach of your longstanding agreement with Yuri, he wishes to propose that you provide to him payment for his past services rendered, and for the loyalty he has shown you. Therefore, Yuri requests that you now pay him for the past services rendered and to fulfill your promise to support he and his family for life. That sum is $5 million and a life estate for he and his wife in the house (free and clear of any liens or mortgages) where he is currently living.”
The U.S. Attorney’s office in Miami declined comment Monday. A-Rod’s spokesmen did not immediately respond to the allegations.
Sucart has been charged with conspiracy to distribute testosterone and human growth hormone. The court documents were posted Monday and after a judge ordered Sucart to pay $600 a month for a court-appointed attorney to represent him, Sucart claimed he could not afford a lawyer.
The motion goes on to say that the government will “prove that defendant personally arranged meetings between Rodriguez and Bosch, where Bosch injected Rodriguez with PEDs; and that defendant received an ample cut of the payments Rodriguez made to Bosch.”
I am sure we will see updates on this story in the near future.
