Lawsuit claims MTK used boxers’ bank accounts to launder drug money for Kinahan cartel
An MTK fight night event in 2022. | Sports Press Photo, IMAGO
In 2020 JoJo Diaz signed with MTK Global, the company founded by accused mob boss Daniel Kinahan. In doing so they prompted a lawsuit from Moses Heredia, who accused them of poaching his fighter. That lawsuit now threatens to expose all their secrets.
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Not gonna lie, we’re a bit disappointed
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MTK closed down in 2022 after the US government sanctioned Kinahan and put a $5 million reward on his head. That came after years of MTK claiming Kinahan was not involved with the company, despite top MTK talents like Tyson Fury, Billy Joe Saunders and Darren Till talking up how much they adored Kinahan and trusted him as a friend and personal advisor.
Heredia’s lawsuit against MTK named Kinahan as a defendant and claimed MTK was responsible for RICO offenses (racketeering and corruption) in the US.
On December 13 Heredia and his team told the court they had secured a number of experts who will give testimony regarding boxing finances, purses and fee structures and models regarding what level of damages would be appropriate in this case.
Here’s that document below:
Sunday World, one of a number of Irish outlets that covers all things related to the Kinahan Organized Crime Group, reported on some of these latest court developments.
That outlet secured access to an unsealed court transcript where Heredia’s lawyer Eric Montalvo accused MTK of laundering money through the bank accounts of the fighters they had on their roster.
During the hearing Montalvo claimed he traveled across Europe and the Middle East to discover MTK’s business practises. He told the court that MTK would make agreements with fighters that saw MTK take zero percent of earnings.
“In the discovery in the litigation, it reveals that MTK would enter into zero percent agreements with the fighters, and then push in half a million to a million dollars’ worth of euros in increments, and then you would see that money leave the fighter’s bank account in also large sums.
“So, it appears this is a mechanism upon which they were moving their money. So, I was pretty happy on that development.”
In 2020 Kinahan attempted to brand himself as a boxing kingmaker. Tyson Fury publicly thanked him for setting up deals to fight Anthony Joshua. Kinahan also took on public roles with sporting organizations in Dubai (where he was reportedly living after escaping an assassination attempt in Dublin) and Bahrain.
But that all fell away after the US sanctions hit. Reports in Ireland now suggest that Kinahan’s safe haven in the UAE is under threat with increased co-operation between Irish authorities and their Emirati counterparts.
