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Alex Rodriguez is among the players who allegedly received banned drugs from Anthony Bosch.
Major League Baseball filed a lawsuit Friday morning in state court in Florida accusing the owner of the Miami clinic whose links to performance-enhancing drugs have ensnared dozens of players in a drug probe, of "intentional and unjustified tortious interference" with contracts between MLB and its players by providing them with banned substances.
The lawsuit filed in the 11th judicial circuit in Miami-Dade County says Biogenesis owner Anthony Bosch and the other defendants "participated in a scheme to solicit Major League Players to purchase or obtain, and/or to sell, supply or otherwise make available to Major League Players, substances that the Defendants knew were prohibited under MLB's Joint Prevention and Treatment Program."
Also named as defendants in the suit are Juan Carlos Nunez, an associate of two prominent New York sports agents, as well as Bosch's business partners Carlos Acevedo, Ricardo Martinez, Marcelo Albir and Paulo da Silveira. A company called Biokem LLC, described in the complaint as the predecessor to Biogenesis, is also named as a defendant.
The suit says that Bosch, as director of Biokem, BioGenesis, and related entities ... "provided Major League Players with PES (performance-enhancing substances), including Testosterone, Human Growth Hormone, and Human Chorionic Gonadotropin, which he claimed would increase their strength and/or help them recover from injury if used by the players in the dosages and at the frequencies prescribed by him."
The suit also says Bosch, who is not a doctor, "visited players at their places of residence and/or hotel rooms to personally administer PES to them."
According to the suit, Bosch interfered by sending "agents" such as Nunez to solicit business from players.
"Through these 'runners,' we maintain that he actively solicited these players," a baseball official told the Daily News.
MLB and federal authorities have been investigating Bosch and Biogenesis for allegedly providing drugs to dozens of players, including the Yankees' Alex Rodriguez, Brewers left fielder Ryan Braun and the Blue Jays' Melky Cabrera. Nunez, as associate of the prominent Aces sports agency owned by Seth and Sam Levinson, was banned from MLB clubhouses and facilities following his admission to having created a fake website designed to help explain Cabrera's positive drug test last summer.
A spokesman for Rodriguez declined comment on Friday. Bosch's attorney, Susy Ribero-Ayala, did not return calls for comment.
The Daily News first reported the Nunez/Cabrera scheme last summer and reported on Jan. 26 that MLB was investigating Bosch. The Miami New Times then published documents linking numerous players to Bosch and his clinic. Several of the Levinson's clients have been named as Bosch's customers.
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