Alex Rodriguez allegedly paid cousin $1 million to cover up PED use

New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez paid his cousin nearly $1 million in hush money to cover up Rodriguez’s use of performance-enhancing drugs, according to court documents filed last week in Miami.

The Associated Press, following up on a New York Daily News story, reported that federal prosecutors said Rodriguez made four wire payments totaling $900,000 between June and September 2013 to settle a threatened lawsuit by Yuri Sucart, who worked as Rodriguez’s personal assistant.

Sucart, in a letter from his lawyer, threatened to expose Rodriguez’s PED use if he wasn’t given $5 million and a home. Rodriguez, who is still owed $61 million in the final three years of his contract with the Yankees, plans to return from a yearlong suspension next spring.

The payments from Rodriguez to Sucart were revealed after the government said Sucart did not fully disclose his personal financial situation to determine if he should pay a portion of the costs for having a federal public defender. The government said Rodriguez paid Sucart about $500,000 in salary from 2008-2013.

Sucart, according to the documents, told the court he does not own a house or a car, but the government alleges he does “pursuant to a settlement with Rodriguez” that stemmed from what Sucart claimed was a wrongful termination by the player.

In that proposed settlement, Sucart asked Rodriguez for $5 million and a life estate for him and his wife in return for continued silence and a willingness to remain Rodriguez’s personal assistant.

Sucart was charged in August with conspiring to distribute testosterone and human growth hormone. He has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled for trial in February.

He is among a group accused of acting as recruiters who set up meetings between athletes and Anthony Bosch, former owner of the now-closed Biogenesis of America anti-aging clinic.

Bosch, who met Rodriguez through Sucart in July 2010, provided evidence that weighed heavily in Major League Baseball’s decision to suspend the three-time American League most valuable player for the entire 2014 season.

Rodriguez, who ranks fifth on baseball’s all-time list with 654 home runs, admitted six years ago he used performance-enhancing substances while playing for the Texas Rangers from 2001-2003 but has denied usage since.