cash box | 

Daniel Kinahan used boxers to launder cash with $1 million going through fighter’s account

US court is told how mobster’s MTK management company washed cash through the bank accounts of fighters

Today at 12:00

The boxing company co-founded by Daniel Kinahan laundered sums of up to US$1 million (€900,000) through the bank accounts of individual boxers, it has been claimed.

Today, we reveal details of a unredacted transcript from a US court case involving the now-defunct boxing company MTK.

A court in California was told the Kinahan gang leadership used the boxing management company to launder their drugs cash.

MTK fighters, who were not identified by name, were given ‘zero pc’ representation by MTK, it was claimed.

Effectively, this meant the boxing company charged these fighters nothing to represent them and took no portion of any winnings associated with their fights.

The claims against the company are contained in a newly unredacted transcript from a case conference on August 25 involving lawyers for boxing manager Moses Heredia, who is suing Daniel Kinahan and MTK over the alleged illegal poaching of fighter JoJo Diaz.

As part of his case, Heredia’s lawyer Eric Montalvo has alleged that MTK laundered vast sums of drug money earned by the Kinahan cartel through MTK — rising the status of the case from a civil matter to a RICO case — Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations — in the US.

Heredia’s case against Kinahan revolves around allegations that MTK used the proceeds of drug trafficking to fund the illegal poaching of Mexican fighter JoJo Diaz.

During the hearing Mr Montalvo said he had also established a model developed by MTK for attacking rival managers and drawing them into litigation.

And, he revealed, a top former Department of Justice expert in asset forfeiture has now come on board to help his team track down the assets of Daniel Kinahan and MTK.

Asked about the progress he was making in the case by the presiding judge John W. Holcomb, Mr. Montalvo told the court he had undertaken extensive travel as part of the discovery.

“The big takeaways are I travelled to both the Middle East and Ireland,” Mr Montalvo said.

“I sat down with key persons, and I acquired a fair amount of documentary evidence already that demonstrates that MTK had a plan and practice to attack managers, put them in arbitration postures, and then also sue.

“So, this was their model that they used in Ireland.

“One of the managers suffered ten different arbitrations and a pretty extensive lawsuit.

“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.”

With reference to his teams’ efforts to track down assets belonging to Kinahan and MTK that can be liquidated to pay damages to his client, Mr Montalvo said these efforts were ongoing.

“I’m also undertaking asset recovery to determine where his assets are so that he can access those, which we have had a fair amount of progress,” he said.

“And I have also brought on recently a gentleman by the name of Bill Gonzalez who used to work for the DOJ in their Asset Forfeiture Division …

“He has got 30-plus years of money laundering experience across the globe. I have worked with him previously, so we are excited to bring him on board and sort of tidy up the connections that I have established. We are doing pretty well.”

In a discovery update submitted to the court, another of Mr Heredia’s lawyers, Rajan O. Dhungana, confirmed that between August 6 and 13, the legal team had travelled to various witness locations and collected information to assist them in assessing damages against Kinahan and MTK.

He confirmed that a number of individuals with information ‘relevant’ to the case are now co-operating with them.

In a previous outline of the damages being sought by Moses Heredia, his legal team said he was seeking compensatory and punitive damages as well as the recovery of his legal fees.

Company documents filed by MTK Global USA in the state of Delaware — where it was incorporated in 2020 — show it ‘voluntarily cancelled’ its status as of May 26, 2022.

The development occurred a month after Kinahan had a €5 million bounty placed on his head by the US government.

Both Kinahan and MTK Global USA subsequently fired their legal counsel and have since ‘ghosted’ the legal proceedings against them in California.