Alex Rodriguez may be well into his second year back from his suspension, but not everyone has put the Biogenesis scandal behind them.
Neiman Nix, a former minor league pitcher who later opened a sports science center in Florida, filed a lawsuit Thursday alleging Major League Baseball, in the course of its Biogenesis probe, destroyed his business by hacking into social media accounts (Facebook, YouTube, PayPal) because it suspected him of selling performance-enhancing drugs to players.
Nix’s attorney, Vincent White, who also is representing ex-Mets closer Jenrry Mejia in his fight against MLB, said he expects former members of the league’s Department of Investigation to testify on his client’s behalf.
Among those listed in the suit are MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and his predecessor, Bud Selig, as well as Neil Boland, MLB’s VP of Information Security, and Awilda Swanson of the Department of Investigations. Among the witnesses on Nix’s side is Ed Dominguez, an investigator who was fired by MLB in 2014.
“We expect Mr. Dominguez to testify that Mr. Boland and individuals working under his supervision illegally gained access to electronic accounts of individuals they investigated through various exploits and phishing schemes,” White said during a press conference at his Midtown office. “We believe these tactics may have extended to players, team staff and ownership groups. Our complaint alleges that similar tactics were used to attack and ultimately destroy Mr. Nix’s business.”
White added he believes “certain members of the Department of Investigations were directed not to cooperate with DEA agents [and] possibly even directed to hide information and evidence from those agents. … It is time we all knew what happened during Biogenesis. The takeaway here is that investigators directly involved in Biogenesis will be deposed in this action and baseball may never be the same.”
MLB, in a statement, dismissed the validity of the suit.
“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,” the statement read. “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.”
MLB also pointed out that Nix admitted to selling products purportedly containing at least one banned performance-enhancing substance, IGF-1, which is derived from elk antlers.
White said Mejia, who received a lifetime ban for illegal PED usage, “will be moving forward with his case in the coming weeks.”