Two months before MLB commissioner Bud Selig slapped Alex Rodriguez with the initial 211-game suspension for his connection with Biogenesis of America, the Yankees' third baseman paid his cousin, Yuri Sucart, $900,000 to remain silent on the superstar's illegal performance-enhancing drug use.
Since August, the DEA investigation of Anthony Bosch and others connected with the former anti-aging clinic, Biogenesis of America, has unearthed a ton of information regarding the illegal distribution of PEDs. Bosch was arrested back in August and agreed to plead guilty to charges of conspiracy to distribute PEDs to baseball players ranging from high school to the professional level. He eventually did in October and his sentencing is scheduled for December 18.
And now, as the investigation continues, documents filed last week in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida (where those involved in the case were arrested) stated that Rodriguez paid off his cousin in June of 2013 in an attempt to avoid having his name surface in the wake of the scandal. But it didn't matter, because in August of 2013, Selig simultaneously suspended 14 players who were believed to have been involved in the PED ring, including Rodriguez who eventually was banned for the entire 2014 season.
Sucart, who first made headlines back in 2009 when Rodriguez admitted steroid use earlier in the decade, threatened to expose the Yankees' third baseman unless he was given "enormous sums of money," according to the documents. In fact, Sucart's former attorney, Jeffrey Sonn, demanded that Rodriguez hand over $5 million and a "life estate" for Sucart and his wife in a letter to Rodriguez:
"Yuri, even after he was accused of being a steroid mule for you, kept your confidences of all your activities while you played for the Rangers and the Yankees," Sonn wrote, according to the New York Daily News. "(Yuri) was trained to serve as a personal assistant to professional baseball players. 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."
Rodriguez finally caved and paid Sucart $700,000 up front, followed by three subsequent payments that totaled $200,000. Additionally, according to the court documents, Rodriguez could be called as a witness against his cousin because the slugger "has a prominent role in the government's proff of Count 1 and Count 2 conspiracies to distribute" PEDs, via this ESPN article.
Sucart was one of the nine other men arrested after Bosch was taken into custody by the DEA. He was charged with conspiracy to distribute testosterone and human growth hormone in connection with Bosch and Biogenesis.