ON the same day he filed his $33-million (P1.782 billion) lawsuit against Murad Muham?mad with the US District Court in New York on Wednesday, Manny Pacquiao got an unexpected boost in his effort to sever his ties with the American boxing promoter, whom he has accused of defrauding him of more than 30 percent of his earnings.
According to the boxing website Ringtalk.com, the American lawyer Sydney J. Hall had also filed suit against Muhammad in November 2003. Hall was Pacquiao?s agent and immigration lawyer, filing the paperwork to get the fighter into the United States in 2001.
Hall was also a member of Team Pacquiao, and the sole person who negotiated the fight with Lehlo Ledwaba, from whom the Filipino icon wrested away the International Boxing Federation super bantamweight title, the website?s Jason Aniel said.
Then on Wednesday in Burlingame, California, Hall had a motion approved by the California State Superior Court adding Pacquiao and the boxer?s former promoter, Martin Elorde, as coplaintiffs in his case against Muhammad, Rodolfo Nazario and his son Roberto, the website added.
Rod Nazario was Pacquiao?s business manager until a group led by American manager Shelley Finkel took over the affairs of the former two-time world champion shortly before his blockbuster fight with Mexico?s Erik Morales on March 19 in Las Vegas. Roberto ?Boying? Nazario handles his father?s affairs in the United States.
Hall?s motion raised the possibility that the case Pacquiao filed in New York will be moved to federal court in California?which would favor the Filipino boxing icon because he makes his US base in Los Angeles.
Hall filed the suit initially against Muhammad, but added the Nazarios as defendants later, according to Ringtalk.com.
Asked by the website to comment on the New York case, Hall said: ?I?m not worried about that other suit. I expect to have the New York lawsuit brought back to federal court in California.?
Hall also told Ringtalk.com the New York suit ?has almost no ties? to his case against Muhammad, and the courts ?will be inclined to transfer the forum to California? where the evidence is and where Pacquiao resides when he is training.
Nazario left out
Unlike Hall?s case, Pacquiao?s suit against Muhammad and his promotional outfit M&M Sports Inc. left out the elder Nazario, who the super-featherweight ?People?s Champion? still looks up to as a father figure.
US lawyers Judd Burstein and Keith Davidson filed the suit in New York on Pacquiao?s behalf.
Nazario, whose wife is Supreme Court Associate Justice Minita Chico-Nazario, had managed Pacquiao?s business affairs for the past 11 years. He recently told the General Santos City-born boxer to choose between him and the new management group?made up of Finkel, Davidson and Nick Khan?or cut their ties altogether.
Burstein, who counts former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis among his clients, and Davidson alleged in the lawsuit that M&M Sports and Muhammad ?corrupted? the Nazarios to transfer more than 30 percent of Pacquiao?s purses to a shell company, Philippine Boxing LLC, on the basis his American taxes would be paid from there.
But the taxes were never paid, the lawsuit said, leaving Pacquiao with huge bills for back taxes, penalties and interest. The boxer?s lawyers then demanded judgment on five claims for relief for to a minimum of $13 million, and punitive damages of $20 million.
The lawsuit also alleges the arrangement between Muhammad and the Nazarios meant Pacquiao?s former handlers agreed to purses that were below market, since they could make more from the money they set aside than they would from the 10 percent fee on properly negotiated purses.
?It has taken me a while to come to terms with the fact that I have been cheated by people whom I trusted,? Pacquiao said in a statement released Wednesday.
Muhammad, however, said that by keeping Nazario out of the lawsuit, it became obvious that the whole goal of Finkel, Davidson and Khan was to ?steal? Pacquiao from him.
?Pacquiao regrettably believe the lies of strangers, who all made money without doing anything, and now he slays my name. Their whole goal is to steal Pacquiao,? he said.
Unfamiliar with US laws
In the Las Vegas Review Journal on Wednesday, Davidson was quoted as saying that Pacquiao was ?ultimately responsible? for paying his taxes, but added that the fighter ?is uneducated and unfamiliar with US laws? and that he relied on the Nazarios and Muhammad to help him.
Davidson said the Internal Revenue Service wanted to withhold Pacquiao?s entire $1.75 million purse because of his back taxes before the Morales fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
However, after negotiations with Pacquiao?s new management group, the IRS decided to withhold just 30 percent of the gross purse or $525,000, Davidson said.
?We should all pay our taxes, I agree, but in this situation you?re talking about a guy who has a second- or third-grade education from a foreign country who is fighting in three or four different states and making these very large purses,? Davidson told the Review Journal.
?So he picked people he thought he could trust to do the right thing for him. Manny wanted to do the right thing all the time. When we met with the IRS people and they saw how egregiously Manny had been treated, I think they understood what we as his new management team were trying to do.?
US federal law requires promoters to withhold 30 percent of the purses of nonresident aliens. An agent from the local IRS office frequently attends the news conferences of fights in Las Vegas in which foreigners are participating in an effort to make certain the proper amount of tax is withheld.
The suit also alleges Muhammad failed to disclose where all of the money he was making on a Pacquiao fight was coming from, in violation of the Muhammad Ali Professional Boxing Reform Act.
The suit said: ?Muhammad had facilitated a scheme that permitted Pacquiao?s business managers to retain as much as 50 percent or more of Pacquiao?s earnings. Pacquiao?s business management had a vested interest in not risking the exposure of their scheme by antagonizing Muhammad through hard negotiations for the highest possible purses.?
Muhammad, however, said Pacquiao signed all the fight contracts and knew what his purse was before fights, and that the Finkel group accused him of stealing 40 percent of the Filipino icon?s pay-per-view income from the Morales fight ?but didn?t pursue the claim because there was no basis.?
