Longtime U.S. Olympic and USA Gymnastics national team director Martha Karolyi said in a 2017 deposition that she was first informed in June 2015 by USA Gymnastics chief executive Steve Penny of allegations that U.S. Olympic and women’s national team physician Larry Nassar molested Team USA gymnasts at the Karolyi Ranch in central Texas, according to documents obtained by the Southern California News Group.

Karolyi’s statements in a sworn deposition given May 23, 2017, in Houston – made public for the first time by SCNG – contradict assertions made by Karolyi and her husband Bela, a former U.S. Olympic team coach and USA Gymnastics national team director, in a recent lawsuit that they did not learn of allegations of Nassar’s sexual misconduct with gymnasts and other young athletes until after the 2016 Olympic Games.

While dozens of Olympic and world champion gymnasts and U.S. national team members have alleged they were repeatedly sexually abused by Nassar at Team USA training camps at the Karolyi Ranch and on international trips supervised by Martha Karolyi, Karolyi said in the May 2017 deposition she had not been contacted by the FBI or any other law enforcement agency. The deposition was taken nearly two years after USA Gymnastics officials first contacted the FBI with allegations of sexual abuse by Nassar.

Karolyi also said in the 2017 deposition she did not report allegations of Nassar’s sexual abuse to authorities or tell any other person other than her husband what Penny told her in June 2015.

The Karolyis face dozens of civil lawsuits filed by former Team USA gymnasts who allege the Karolyis, USA Gymnastics, Penny and two other former USA Gymnastics top executives and the U.S. Olympic Committee enabled Nassar’s predatory behavior by creating a culture of abuse within the U.S. national team program and in particular at the Karolyi Ranch, the site of almost monthly national team training camps.

The Karolyis filed a lawsuit against USA Gymnastics and the USOC last month in Walker County Court in Texas alleging breach of contract, negligence and seeking to not be held responsible for lawsuits stemming from Nassar’s abuse.

The lawsuit asserts: “The Karolyis never had any knowledge of Larry Nassar’s reprehensible conduct and would have reported such conduct had they learned of it or had there been any suspicion. Nor were the Karolyis ever informed that Larry Nassar was performing any supposed pelvic-floor/intra-vaginal osteopathic on gymnasts (or any other inappropriate treatments).”

The Karolyis said they “were first informed of possible misconduct by Larry Nassar in 2015, when USAG contacted Martha and told her that Larry Nassar would not be returning to USAG because of treatment concerns. USAG then asked the Karolyis not to further discuss the matter.

“When USAG told the Karolyis in 2015 that Larry Nassar would not be returning, USAG never mentioned that the alleged mistreatment was potentially sexual assault nor did they relay the nature of the treatments at issue.

“The Karolyis first learned of the exact nature of Nassar’s conduct leading to his dismissal — e.g. allegations of sexual misconduct — sometime after the 2016 Summer Olympics. Around the same time, the first lawsuits were filed against USAG in September of 2016.”

However, in the May 2017 deposition, Martha Karolyi acknowledged Penny informed her of allegations of sexual misconduct by Nassar in June 2015, shortly after the club coach of U.S. national team member Maggie Nichols first raised concerns with USA Gymnastics officials about some of Nassar’s therapy practices. The deposition was part of a lawsuit by a former U.S. national team member against USA Gymnastics, the Karolyis, Penny and other former USA Gymnastics officials.

“Were you ever advised by any USAG official in or around June of 2015 that they had received a complaint that Dr. Nassar had molested a national team gymnast at The Ranch?” Karolyi was asked in the deposition.

“Yes, I did,” she responded.

“And who-who reported that to you, ma’am?”

“Mr. Penny,” Karolyi said.

“Okay. Did he call you on the phone?”

“Yes.”

“When Mr. Penny told you that, did you make any report to anyone else?” Karolyi was asked.

Before Karolyi could respond her attorney, Gary Jewell objected.

“Mrs. Karolyi, were you concerned at all — when you spoke to Mr. Penny, did he express concern that (Nassar) may have done this to other gymnasts since your time as national team coordinator?” an attorney for the former gymnast asked.

Again Jewell objected and Karolyi did not answer.

Jewell and an attorney for USA Gymnastics also objected to questions about whether Karolyi was “visited by an investigator” for USA Gymnastics, whether Penny asked to meet with her about Nassar, whether she had any other conversations with Penny about Nassar, or about who was in charge of the welfare of the gymnasts at the Karolyi Ranch or major international competitions like the Olympic Games and World Championship. Each time Karolyi did not respond as per her and the USA Gymnastics attorney’s instructions

Karolyi and her attorney did not respond to request for comment.

At a 2015 U.S. national team training camp, Sarah Jantzi, Nichols’ club coach, overheard Nichols tell Olympic champion Aly Raisman that Nassar, under the guise of medical treatment, had sexually abused her. Jantzi informed Rhonda Faehn, USA Gymnastics senior vice president for the women’s program, of the conversation. Faehn in turn told Penny on June 28, 2015.

A month later, on July 17, Raisman suggested in an interview with USA Gymnastics investigators that they contact McKayla Maroney, another member of the 2012 Olympic gold medal-winning team. Maroney, Raisman said, had confided in her that she had been abused sexually abused by Nassar. Maroney confirmed that abuse in a July 24 interview with USA Gymnastics. USA Gymnastics contacted the FBI on July 27, nearly a month after Penny was first informed by Faehn about the Nichols and Raisman conversation.

Twenty-two months later, the FBI still hadn’t contacted Martha Karolyi, according to the deposition.

“Did Steve Penny tell you not to talk to the police when he talked to you in June of 2015?”

An attorney objected and Karolyi did not answer.

“Have you talked to the FBI about this?” an attorney asked Karolyi.

“No,” she said.

“Okay.”

“I didn’t talk to nobody except …” Karolyi answered.

“Steve Penny?” the attorney for the former gymnast said.

“Steve Penny told me, and that’s it,” Karolyi said.

Karolyi was the architect of the most successful period in American women’s gymnastics history. In the four Olympic Games since Karolyi took over as U.S. national team director in 2001, Team USA has won 28 medals, the last two team competition gold medals and the last four individual all-around titles.

Hired in the wake of a disappointing performance at the 2000 Olympics in which the U.S. women won but a single medal, Karolyi implemented what became known as the “Karolyi Plan.”

At the heart of the plan were nearly monthly U.S. national team training camps at the Karolyi Ranch, a 40-acre spread located in the Sam Houston National Forest down a narrow dirt and clay U.S. Forest Service road about an hour north of Houston.

“These training camps were created in order to give some real organization for the U.S. gymnasts,” Karolyi said in the May 2017 deposition, the transcript reflecting her broken English in several places. “Most of the reigning nations at the time were training all in centralized system. But in U.S., before national team training camps, it was no participation together. So we wanted the coaches and the gymnasts to come together, train together, try to some bonding, have some common priorities in training, and be able to come to up with a common planning to prepare these girls the best what they can be.”

“Home of Olympic & World Champions,” read a sign welcoming gymnasts and their coaches at the ranch’s main compound.

But the ranch was also the site of repeated sexual abuse, former Olympic and U.S. national team members said.

While some former gymnasts said Nassar was ever present at the training camps, Karolyi said in the deposition Nassar usually attended only two training camps a year.

“Right before major competitions,” Karolyi said.

Adults were not permitted in the gymnasts’ rooms at the ranch, Karolyi said.

Former gymnasts said they were sexually abused by Nassar in their rooms at the ranch. Karolyi was asked who enforced the “no visitors in rooms” rule.

“I’m not sure,” she said. “I think USA Gymnastics (representative) checked that everything good with the girls.”

At one point in the deposition, Karolyi was asked who was in charge of the gymnasts’ welfare. Her attorney objected.

Karolyi, however, made it clear that despite her position or the fact she and her husband owned the ranch that she didn’t think the responsibility was hers.

“What I’m saying that I was in charge of the preparation of the gymnasts,” she said. “And my duty was to make sure they kept those routines and when they train well.”

Karolyi said Nassar gave her regular updates on the health of gymnasts in the U.S. national team pipeline.

“I never questioned his therapies,” she said.

Two massage tables were brought into an activity room at the ranch where the gymnasts watched TV and socialized after training. The tables enabled Nassar to treat the girls after the second of two daily training sessions.

“It was a social hour room,” Karolyi said.

Karolyi was asked in the deposition if she ever saw Nassar treat a gymnast in the room who was “face down where they’d be disrobed below the waist and a towel over their buttocks? Did you ever see that?”

“I didn’t,” she replied.

“Okay,” the attorney said.

“I don’t recall seeing that, but — oh, no,” Karolyi continued.

“Okay,” the attorney said again.

“I don’t think so,” Karolyi said.