MANHATTAN -- Neiman Nix, owner of a Florida sports performance facility and baseball academy, claims his now-defunct Florida business to be collateral damage of Major League Baseball’s (MLB) 2013 Biogenesis doping crackdown and has filed suit against the league.
“(Nix) has been harmed by Major League Baseball's actions,” his attorney Vincent White told reporters.
White said the same tactics the MLB used when it conducted its probe into Anthony Bosch’s Biogenesis anti-aging clinic were also employed when the MLB investigated Nix, including the alleged hacking of players’ computer accounts.
“An innocent man has been stripped of his livelihood and his business destroyed. It is time we all knew what happened with Biogenesis,” White said.
That investigation led to the 2014 season-long suspension of Alex Rodriguez, the suspensions of 13 other MLB players, and the firing of several MLB department of investigations employees, including Eduardo Dominguez, who has been named as a witness in the Nix suit.
The complaint, which names both former baseball commissioner Bud Selig and current commissioner Rob Manfred, as well as head of information security Neil Boland, has been dismissed as “frivolous” by the MLB. The 16-page lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
“The lawsuit filed today by Neiman Nix against the MLB repeats many of the same allegations he asserted in a Florida lawsuit that was dismissed in 2014,” the statement said.
The statement also claims a possible counteraction against Nix, asserting that “the allegations in this lawsuit, including the allegations relating to the hacking of (Nix’s) DNA Sports Lab's social media accounts, to be sanctionable under New York law.”
White explained what his expectations were when Dominguez testified.
“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 schemes,” White said.
According to the Miami New Times, it was obvious from the start of the MLB’s investigation in early 2013 why they filed suit against Biogenesis founder Tony Bosch and his partners. It had already been revealed that he sold drugs to ballplayers and the MLB wanted his records and testimony for their suspension cases.
The Miami New Times' article stated that the "lawsuit threatened Bosch with months of expensive litigation and the pressure cooker worked perfectly. By last June, the clinic owner cracked and agreed to testify against A-Rod and company. And now that A-Rod has dropped his own legal fight and accepted a season-long suspension, the lawsuit has served its purpose; MLB dropped the case late Wednesday afternoon."
Nix claims the U.S. Department of Investigations (DOI) first began questioning people about him back in August 2011, when the baseball academy had caught the DOI’s attention. After being forced to sell his shares in the academy, Nix started the DNA Sports Lab, where he claims he never worked with baseball players. He says MLB “unjustifiably targeted” the facility in early 2013, when the Biogenesis doping scandal burst into view.