Melky Cabrera Created Fake Website In Hopes Of Avoiding Drug Suspension

Steroid Cop Coming

After San Francisco Giants outfielder Melky Cabrera tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone in July, he knew he was facing a 50-game suspension. So to avoid that punishment, he became embroiled in a complicated scheme that involved creating a fake website for a nonexistent supplement, the New York Daily News reports.

The idea apparently was to create a digital record showing Cabrera had ordered a supplement that caused the positive test, the newspaper reports. MLB’s drug program allows players who have tested positive to present evidence they ingested banned substances through no fault of their own.

“There was a product they said caused this positive,” a source told the Daily News. “Baseball figured out the ruse pretty quickly.”

Once MLB’s department of investigations started asking questions about the website, it quickly discovered it was an existing website that had been altered by adding an ad for a nonexistent topical cream.

At the center of the scheme is Cabrera associate Juan Nunez, who is a paid consultant for the player’s agents, Seth and Sam Levinson. The Daily News says he is alleged to have paid $10,000 to acquire the fake website.

Nunez told the newspaper he was “accepting responsibility for what everyone else already knows,” regarding the fake website. He said the Levinsons knew nothing about the scheme. “I was the only one who had dealings with the website. Neither Seth nor Sam had any dealings with the website, nor did anyone else in the firm.”

Seth Levinson said the agents used the Spanish-speaking Nunez as a liaison with their Dominican clients, including Cabrera.

“Juan Nunez is NOT a salaried employee of ACES and does NOT receive the benefits that all ACES employees receive,” Levinson said. “Most importantly, any and all calls, texts and emails that he sends come from his own PERSONAL devices (BlackBerry).”

The use of the fake website has brought attention to the case from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration and MLB’s Department of Investigations, which are probing Cabrera’s associates, including trainers, handlers and agents, as they search for the source of the synthetic testosterone for which he tested positive.