Bud Selig
Photo by Bloomberg News
Manny Ramirez
Photo by Bloomberg News
Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig filed a lawsuit Friday accusing a Coral Gables-based clinic of peddling banned performance-enhancing drugs to major and minor league players.
The lawsuit claims Biogenis of America LLC, its officers and employees interfered with the league's contracts with the players' union, which carry an anti-drug clause. BioGenesis was formerly known as Biokem.
"MLB has aggressively sought to eliminate the use of performance-enhancing substances by major league players," the lawsuit states. Its stand against banned drug is to "preserve and enhance the integrity of the game and the image of baseball."
Selig is represented by Proskauer Rose attorney Allen Weitzman in Boca Raton and Kobre & Kim attorney Matthew Menchel in Miami. Major League Baseball and the attorneys declined comment.
The Miami-Dade Circuit Court complaint seeks unspecified damages for alleged tortious interference with contracts. The suit said the damages include "the costs of investigation, loss of goodwill, loss of revenue and profits, and injury to its reputation, image, strategic advantage and fan relationships."
The company has been linked in news reports to major league powerhouses Ryan Braun and Alex Rodriguez. The lawsuit mentions former Boston Red Sox star Manny Ramirez. He retired from the league after he was suspended for 50 games for using performance-enhancing drugs, or PEDs, with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Braun was the 2007 National League Rookie of the Year and the 2011 National League MVP for the Milwaukee Brewers. An arbitrator overturned a 50-day suspension for PEDs after his urine allegedly showed elevated levels of synthetic testosterone associated with performance-enhancing drugs.
Rodriguez, a New York Yankees player and South Florida native, has admitted using banned drugs.
The lawsuit alleges Anthony Bosch, the health and wellness clinic's program director, in 2009 sold Ramirez an assortment of drugs banned by professional baseball, including human growth hormone, human chorionic gonadotropin and testosterone.
The complaint cites Miami New Times reporting on company documents to support its claims.
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