The lawyer for U.S. Olympic swimmer James Feigen says he will pay about $10,000 Friday and then leave Brazil following the robbery scandal involving the U.S. swim team.
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According to the ABC News, Feigan’s lawyer Breno Melaragno Costa announced that the athlete would pay the sum to Reaction Institute charity after a four-hour conversation with public prosecutors at a police station on Thursday.
Lochte and three US swimmers said they were robbed at gunpoint early Sunday, with Lochte saying their cab was pulled over by men impersonating police officers.
Feigen was one of four swimmers whose taxi ride back from a late-night party ended in a confrontation at a gas station, where police say the athletes vandalized a bathroom, damaging a door, a mirror and a soap dispenser. Of course, CCTV footage today revealed the group hadn’t been robbed at gunpoint as Lochte claimed, and the man himself has hired a crisis publicist to deal with the fallout.
Feigen had been indicted by the Brazilian feds over the false robbery tale Lochte trotted out.
“(They) demanded the athletes’ money and other personal belongings”, the statement said. However, Conger and Bentz were pulled off of a departing plane on Wednesday for questioning, where the resulting stories matched that of the Brazilian police. They did not talk to the press, not one lie and not one truth.
Bentz also said he is “confident” that some video angles that would substantiate his account have either not been released by Rio authorities or were skipped over. “They were not victims of the crimes they claimed”, Civil Police Chief Fernando Veloso said during a news conference.
The United States Olympic Committee issued a statement Thursday night calling the swimmers’ behavior “unacceptable”, and Lochte apologized via social media Friday morning.
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But Rio police said the story was fabricated.
