Alex Rodriguez did not follow the rules of baseball – or the book of the law.
This is according to the former brother-in-law of the retired Yankees hitter, who claims that A-Rod owes him millions in return on real estate deals that they did when Rodriguez married Cynthia Scurtis in the mid-2000s.
In a broad 136-page lawsuit opened on Friday in Miami’s civil court and revealed on Tuesday, Constantine Scurtis paints A-Rod as a traitor who committed all kinds of fraud, forged and falsified documents and removed him from the company they formed together after Rodriguez’s marriage to Cynthia Scurtis ended in flames because of the accusations that he cheated on her.
“After Rodriguez’s wife found out the truth about Rodriguez’s infidelity and filed for divorce, Rodriguez then called (Constantine) Scurtis and tricked him,” the suit said.
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Scurtis says he wants millions of dollars from Rodriguez, who reached the fourth home run in baseball history, with 696, but was also twice suspended by drug policy to improve the league’s performance. He retired in 2016. He is currently engaged to mega star Jennifer Lopez.
It is not the first time that Scurtis has taken Rodriguez to court. He opened several unsuccessful lawsuits against Rodriguez, the first nearly a decade ago.
A representative for Rodriguez declined to comment. John C. Lukacs, the lawyer representing A-Rod, did not immediately return a message asking for comment.
Scurtis said that in 2014 he asked his sister to get in touch with Rodriguez, but the “answer given to Scurtis was that Rodriguez would never pay him another dollar”.
Scurtis also dramatically recounts a time in 2007, when Rodriguez allegedly looked him in the eye and swore that he had never been unfaithful to his sister. Not long before, the New York Post reported that Rodriguez had been caught entering a hotel room with a stripper.
In addition, Scurtis says that one of Rodriguez’s companies “devised a scheme to profit from the devastation caused by Hurricane Ike”, which was responsible for at least 195 deaths and billions of dollars in damage in 2008. Under the alleged scheme, the Rodriguez, Newport Property Ventures, created accounting records “reflecting significantly inflated damages” to the properties he owned. Scurtis claims that Rodriguez then paid a whistleblower to remain silent after she reported them.
Scurtis said that Rodriguez would not be successful in the real estate market without Scurtis’ knowledge and experience. The suit says that Scurtis and Rodriguez became partners in 2003, a year after Rodriguez married Cynthia Scurtis. In the deal, Rodriguez would take 95% of the cut, as he was the cash creator, and Scurtis would take the rest for providing his services, plus 3% acquisition fees on “property purchases he identified as investment opportunities. “
But it was over in 2008. That’s when, Scurtis claims, two of Rodriguez’s business partners entered Scurtis’s office and “demanded” that he leave the building. The next day, Scurtis said, Rodriguez texted him to reassure him that things were going well between them and that they didn’t end up as friends or business partners.
“I hope to have a long, calm and loving discussion over lunch,” Rodriguez texted Scurtis, the suit said. “Me and you alone.”
This discussion was never supposed to happen.
“Scurtis never suspected that the dispute over the day-to-day operation of the business resulting from his sister’s divorce would be followed by a systematic and fraudulent effort to wipe out Scurtis’ equity in the venture and remove him from future financial rewards to which he had a legitimate right, ”said the suit.
Scurtis said he stopped receiving his share after Rodriguez started a new company without him and sold his assets to her, effectively eliminating him forever.
“Through his extortion,” says the suit, “Rodriguez and his co-conspirators have caused Scurtis many millions of dollars in damages.”
Scurtis said Rodriguez’s dubious business led the IRS to open a tax lien suit against him, which threatened to foreclosure on his family’s home and bank accounts after Rodriguez falsely informed the government that he had sent him payments.
Read the full process below.
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