Larry Nassar sits in court listening to statements before being sentenced for three counts of criminal sexual assault on February 5, 2018 in Charlotte, Michigan. Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images
A federal judge on Thursday rejected former Olympic team doctor Larry Nassar's attempt to keep money in his prison account and ordered him to use it to pay his victims, the Washington Post reports.
Driving the news: U.S. District Court Judge Janet T. Neff said that Nassar owes his victims much more than he paid — about $100 per year in court-ordered penalties — despite technically following the Bureau of Prisons’ rules.
- Nassar spent more than $10,000 on himself during the 3 1/2-year period he's been in prison for criminal sexual conduct, the Post reports, citing papers filed by prosecutors last month.
- Judge Neff signed a court order forcing the agency to turn over the money in his account, which totaled about $2,041 as of late last month.
What they're saying: “Because [the] Defendant has received substantial non-exempt funds in his inmate trust account since incarceration, he was required by law to notify the Court and the United States Attorney and to apply those funds to the restitution that he still owed," Neff wrote.
- Nassar owes more than $60,000 in court judgments to victims, per the Post.
The other side: Nassar, who was acting as his own lawyer, wrote in the court filing that the government “may not like the fact that Mr. Nassar is only paying the ‘minimum’ amount required, [but] the fact still remains that Mr. Nassar is in full compliance with the program," according to the Post.
The big picture: Nassar's case highlights the failures of the Federal Bureau of Prisons' program that enables inmates to hold unlimited amounts of money in their accounts.
- About two dozen inmates have prison account balances of more than $100,000 each, according to the Post.
Go deeper: Report says Larry Nassar spent $10,000 on himself in prison, paid victims $300