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MANHATTAN (CN) — Boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. filed a civil complaint on Friday afternoon against a disgraced former New York City power broker for defrauding him to the tune of $175 million while briefly working as the undefeated champion’s investment portfolio manager.
Mayweather accuses Jona Rechnitz, his de facto investment manager, real estate adviser and banking liaison in recent years, of financial fraud and breaching fiduciary duties by secretly diverting a large portion of his assets to First Apex Ventures, a Florida real estate and investment firm managed by Ayal Frist, who is also named as a defendant, according to a 23-page complaint.
In the seven-count complaint filed in Manhattan state court, Mayweather says he first met Rechnitz in 2017 and that Rechnitz portrayed himself as “a sophisticated real estate investor” while building both a personal and business relationship with the boxer.
Mayweather, 49, says he was unaware at the time that Rechnitz had been a key figure and cooperating witness in the federal bribery trial of former Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association president Norman Seabrook.
Represented by attorney Leo Jacobs, the complaint comprises multiple counts of fraud, unjust enrichment, breach of fiduciary duty, conversion and accounting.
Among the examples of financial mismanagement described in the complaint, Rechnitz and the other co-defendants are accused of making unauthorized transfers of Mayweather’s money to First Apex, including directing $15 million in settlement proceeds from a realty company to the firm.
Mayweather also claims Rechnitz arranged a $7.5 million wire transfer to First Apex on July 1, 2024, for a 12-month investment that never materialized and for which the funds were never returned.
The complaint also challenges a separate loan transaction involving more than $8.8 million tied to a cross-collateralized $16.4 million loan secured by four of Mayweather’s properties, with funds sent to First Apex without explanation.
Mayweather further says Rechnitz pledged nearly $100 million worth of the boxer’s jewelry to two Miami-based jewelers in exchange for just $13 million, less than 14% of its value.
“A substantial portion of the pledged jewelry" remains with the Miami jewelers, Joel Vigo and “Moti”, according to the complaint.
Separately, Mayweather says Rechnitz redirected a $1 million deposit intended to purchase a Midtown Manhattan property on Sixth Avenue in the Diamond District last year to pay a New York City jeweler instead, causing the deal to collapse.
Mayweather is no stranger to litigation. According to the Courthouse News database, he has been sued dozens of times across the country on a range of claims. He has also faced domestic violence charges, received suspended jail sentences three times and served jail time at least once.
Rechnitz testified in 2017 against former corrections officer union president Norman Seabrook and co-defendant Murray Huberfeld at trial in the Southern District of New York as part of a 2016 plea deal in which he admitted attempting to bribe them, as well as then-New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and top New York City Police Department officials.
Rechnitz received immunity as part of the deal for his involvement in two Ponzi schemes, in defrauding a medical insurer and in lying on government forms to obtain a gun license.
Over the course of six days of testimony in Seabrook’s trial, Rechnitz told a jury that he bought favors from Mayor Bill de Blasio for a bundled $100,000 campaign donation, and he chaperoned high-ranking police officers as they cavorted with a prostitute on a private jet to Las Vegas for the Super Bowl.
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