Daniel Kinahan says in sworn legal documents that he "does not work for MTK Global"

By Scott Shaffer

16/03/2022

Daniel Kinahan says in sworn legal documents that he "does not work for MTK Global"

Daniel Kinahan, reportedly an international criminal and the de facto leader of boxing management company MTK Global, has entered an appearance in a California lawsuit concerning the management rights to former IBF 130-pound champion Joseph "JoJo" Diaz. Kinahan's filing is significant because, if he convinces the court to set aside a default that was entered against him and MTK in absentia, he will then defend himself in the lawsuit. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are Moses Heredia and Heredia Boxing Management. They have alleged that, "MTK was co-founded and is in part owned and controlled by Mr. Daniel Kinahan, a noted member of Ireland’s notorious Kinahan Cartel, also known as the Kinahan Organized Crime Group or KOCG... The KOCG is allegedly responsible for several murders, drug trafficking, and money laundering. The KOCG is one of Europe’s biggest drug cartels. Law enforcement experts believe that Mr. Daniel Kinahan started MTK to launder ill-gotten gains from drug trafficking." 
 
Under penalty of perjury, in documents filed on March 14th, Kinahan affirmed, "I do not work for and am not employed by MTK Global Sports Management, LLC, MTK Global USA, LLC [or the other defendants in the lawsuit,] Golden Boy Productions, Inc., Golden Boy Promotions, Inc., VGC, LLP or Paul D. Gibson." Kinahan, however, did not deny dealings with the boxer, Diaz.
 
If Kinahan reaches the point of substantively defending himself against the accusations in the lawsuit (which seems likely), he will participate in the discovery process, which would almost certainly reveal details about himself and MTK's business dealings.
 
The lawsuit alleges the Heredia entities had a management contract with Diaz that ran through February 2022 but MTK illegally lured Diaz away from them. It shoud be noted that Ralph Heredia is not party to this lawsuit, but Ralph allegedly installed his brother Moses as the head of the Heredia Boxing Management, as a front to conceal his own criminal background, which includes threatening to kill a federal judge. According to Heredia's complaint, filed in federal court in California, MTK and Heredia signed Diaz to a management contract in August 2020 knowing he had a valid contract with Heredia. In addition to causes of action for tortious interference with contract, Heredia accuses MTK, Kinahan and two related parties of being an organized crime enterprise in violation of a United States law known as the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. 
 
According to Heredia's complaint, "MTK is flooding the U.S. marketplace with illegal funds, not respecting US law through their interference with contract, violating the Muhammad Ali Act, and not obtaining the required licenses [to act as a boxing manager]... MTK [is] having boxers sign management agreements using the title 'advisor' in an unguarded attempt to avoid legal scrutiny [and licensing requirements]."
 
The lawsuit was filed in 2020, and when MTK and Kinahan did not file a defense, default was entered against them. Last week, MTK, and now Kinahan, through attorneys, filed papers with the court seeking to have the default set aside because their attempts to serve the legal documents did not provide Kinahan with adequate notice of the lawsuit. Kinahan's attorney wrote: "Based largely on information and belief, Plaintiffs sued various defendant parties, including specially appearing defendant Daniel Kinahan. But Mr. Kinahan has nothing to do with Plaintiffs’ dispute, or their allegations. He is and was at all times relevant a resident of Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. He does not conduct any business with Plaintiffs, or any of the other defendant parties. He does not conduct any business in the State of California. Default against Mr. Kinahan should be set aside."
 
DEC. 30, 2020 STORY: Last week, Boxingtalk reported that California manager Moses Heredia and his company Heredia Boxing Management had sued MTK Global Sports Management in a dispute over the right to manage IBF 130-champion Joseph "JoJo" Diaz. Both Heredia Management and MTK claim contractual rights over Diaz, with Heredia Management being the manager of record and Diaz more recently signing an advisory deal with MTK.  The Heredia Management lawsuit was filed in federal court in California but it turns out that was actually the second lawsuit filed, because Diaz had filed a previous lawsuit, claiming that Moses Heredia was really a front for his half-brother, Ralph Heredia, and that Ralph Heredia is a convicted felon who stole two percent of Diaz’s earning plus had a Lexus repossessed after Diaz paid Heredia $25,000 for use of the car. Diaz's earlier lawsuit was filed in California state court but removed to federal court by Ralph Heredia.
 
As laid out by Diaz in his compaint, Diaz met Ralph Heredia when Diaz was approximately 14 or 15 years old. Heredia maintained a cordial relationship with Diaz for several years, periodically buying him gifts such as boxing gear and equipment. In or around 2011, when Diaz began to win amateur boxing tournaments and gain more recognition, Heredia began taking greater interest in Diaz. In 2011, Diaz won the U.S. Mens National Tournament, then the US Olympic trials and he qualified for the 2012 Olympics. Around that time, Heredia approached Diaz and his father and asked whether he could sign Diaz as a boxing client.
 
Shortly after the 2012 Olympics, Diaz agreed to allow Heredia to be his manager and they signed a contract. BUT the contract was not directly signed by Heredia. Instead, Heredia had his half brother Moses Heredia's name on the contract as the manager of record. [According to Diaz] the reason Ralph Heredia inserted Moses' name on the contract was that Ralph was not a licensed manager, likely due to the fact that [according to Diaz,] Heredia has a documented criminal history and did not want to reveal his true identity to the Commission or to Diaz.
 
[Diaz alleges that] Ralph Heredia has gone by many aliases, including Rafael Tarango, Rafael Bustamante and Ralph Bustamante in order to conceal his criminal past.  [Diaz says] the man he knew as Ralph Heredia was indicted in connection with an extortion and threatened murder plot against Los Angeles Rams player Darryl Henley over a 350,000 debt stemming from a drug deal involving over twenty five pounds of cocaine. He was ultimately convicted of a felony for conspiracy to possess and distribute cocaine for which he was sentenced to nearly twenty years in prison.  
 
Diaz says as his pro career played out, Moses Heredia was only a paper manager and that Ralph was the true manager, handling handled all of Diaz's financial affairs. Diaz says he's met Moses only once before signing. After signing, Diaz hardly interacted with Moses at all, while Ralph Heredia arranged all of Diaz's boxing and media affairs, negotiating with promoter Golden Boy, arranging interviews and sponsorship negotiations. Diaz complains Ralph Heredia caused Diaz to miss out on other opportunities.
 
Heredia is also accused of stealing money from Diaz in a dispute related to an automobile . In October 2019, Heredia purchased a 2016 Lexus RC350 and let Diaz have possession of it, with Diaz agreeing to pay Heredia for the car over time. These loan payments from Diaz to Heredia would be in addition to the contractual manager fees Diaz was paying Heredia per fight. Diaz says he paid Heredia $25,000 towards the Lexus, and put another $4000 into the car, in order to wrap the white Lexus with black vinyl. When Diaz signed with MTK in October, Heredia allegedly arranged for the car, in Diaz's possession, to be repossessed. Heredia did not return the $25,000 payment, so by Diaz's reckoning, Heredia stole $29,000 from him.
 
The bitterness between the parties runs deep, as Diaz's lawsuit also complains about Heredia taking comp tickets from Golden Boy and giving the best ones to his own family and friends while sticking Diaz's family and friends in the nosebleed sections. Diaz is also mad about $300 in personal effects he lost when the car was repo'd.
 
And what of the MTK deal? After Diaz became a champion, MTK reached out to him an offered him an advance of $100,000 on his next purse in exchange for signing an advisory agreement. Further details on the MTK-Diaz side of the dispute will emerge as the second lawsuit unfolds.

Back in the first lawsuit, Ralph Heredia has filed a motion to dismiss Diaz’s lawsuit. Ralph Heredia believes dismissal is proper because Diaz has not suffered any damage. Ralph Heredia’s motion to dismiss argues that “Diaz’s complaint is a textbook example of throwing lots of dirt [by] listing every conceivable cause of action, and hoping something takes root. The Supreme Court suggests a motion to dismiss was always intended to cull the weeds... Diaz suggests Heredia was under a legal duty to disclose a prior conviction even though no such legal duty exists. Moreover, Diaz’s complaint fails to offer even a hint as to how he (Diaz) would have been able to earn more money, or would have been better able to advance his career, had he been aware of Ralph Heredia’s prior conviction."

Diaz, of course, argues it would be wrong to dismiss the case because Heredia “actively stole” from him. The management agreement calls for an 18% manager’s fee (which, according to Diaz, was owed to Moses Heredia, not Ralph Heredia), but Ralph Heredia is accused of stealing an extra 2%. When Diaz confronted Ralph Heredia about the extra 2%, he allegedly responded that the money was used to pay for an attorney who had been retained on Diaz’s behalf. But Diaz says he never agreed to any lawyer, and alleges that the extra 2% was actually used to pay for Heredia’s lawyer, identified only as John Doe, Esq.
 
As for the dispute about the Lexus, Ralph Heredia says, "it is unclear on what grounds Mr. Heredia’s action in repossessing his own car constitutes breach [of contract], especially in light of the fact that repossession for failure to pay is permitted under California law." 
 
DEC. 21, 2020 STORY: In an extremely ambitious (and dangerous if the allegations are true) lawsuit, California boxing manager Moses Heredia and his company Heredia Boxing Management have sued MTK Global Sports Management and Golden Boy Promotions in a dispute over IBF 130-champion Joseph "JoJo" Diaz. Heredia alleges he has a management contract with Diaz that runs through February 2022. According to Heredia's complaint, filed in federal court in California,  MTK signed Diaz to a conflicting management contract in August and Golden Boy "negotiated with MTK as if MTK was the manager of Mr. Diaz in violation of the Ali Act for its own financial gain." While Golden Boy is a defendant, the main focus of the lawsuit is on MTK and its alleged principle, Daniel Kinahan. Diaz himself is not named as a party to the lawsuit. In addition to the expected causes of action for tortious interference with contract, Heredia accuses MTK, Kinahan and two related parties of being an organized crime enterprise in violation of a United States law known as the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations or RICO. 
 
The complaint names Kinahan as a defendant, alleging that MTK, a management and promotional company, is part owned and operated by Kinahan, who is a member of a criminal organization known to law enforcement officials as the Kinahan Organized Crime Group or KOCG.  According to Heredia's complaint, "MTK is flooding the U.S. marketplace with illegal funds, not respecting US law through their interference with contract, violating the Muhammad Ali Act, and not obtaining the required licenses [to act as a boxing manager promoter]. MTK has in the past few months signed over eight US boxers and several dozens across the globe. MTK [is] having boxers sign management agreements using the title 'advisory' in an unguarded attempt to avoid legal scrutiny [and licensing requirements]."
 
The Complaint goes on to describe the KOGC: "KOGC is allegedly responsible for several murders, drug trafficking, and money laundering. The KOCG is one of Europe’s biggest drug cartels. Law enforcement experts believe that Kinahan started MTK to launder ill-gotten gains from drug trafficking. Kinahan is wanted for question by several law enforcement agencies due to the murderous activities of the KOCG. On or about September 16, 2018, the United States Customs and Border Protection banned Mr. Kinahan and roughly 26 other members of the KOCG from entering America due to narco-terrorism concerns. In 2016, Kinahan fled [his homeland of] Ireland to Dubai after a boxing match he promoted ended in violence. During that boxing match, several masked gunmen fired AK-47s into the crowd, killed one person, and injured several more. This shooting is alleged to be a plot to kill Kinahan by a rival crime family."
 
The RICO violation, according to Heredia, comes in because MTK is reinvesting the profits of its drug dealing and money laundering activities into the boxing business. In doing so, MTK is becoming a large player in the boxing industry and destroying smaller family-run operations like Heredia's.
 
Also named as a defendant is a law firm, Vats Gupta & Co., or VGC, which Heredia alleges is acting as a front for MTK by representing Diaz and negotiating the just-announced IBF mandatory defense for Diaz against Shavratdzhon Rakhimov.
 
Specific to Diaz, Heredia charges that "After Diaz became a world champion, MTK reached out to him and offered, upon information and belief, an advance of $100,000 on his next purse in exchange for signing a 'marketing advisory' agreement... This advance essentially caused Mr. Diaz to mortgage his future away. [As a result,] the relationship has been disrupted and Diaz no longer communicates with Heredia." The complaint  also sues MTK for signing undefeated junior welterweight Luis Feliciano (14-0). Like Diaz, Feliciano is not named as a defendant.