A lawyer taking a civil case against Daniel Kinahan insists the mob boss cannot “rip his fingerprints off” the lawsuit.
Kinahan along with sports management firm MTK Global, which he co-founded, and others are being sued over the alleged poaching of boxer JoJo Diaz from manager Moses Heredia.
It is claimed the top puncher was lured away from Heredia with a $100,000 cash payment.
The suit, submitted to the United States District Court in California on behalf of Heredia Boxing Management and Moses Heredia in late 2020, insists that Kinahan still controls MTK.
And it alleges Kinahan is using his profits from organised crime to do so.
Lawyer Montalvo and his legal team has now lodged a “default” in the case against both Kinahan, who has refused to answer, and MTK Global.
Earlier this year, MTK USA responded to the case denying that Kinahan is overseeing the company.
However, the original complaint filed to the US courts in late 2020 refers to MTK Global, which is a seperate company.
Montalvo insists that Kinahan remains tightly linked to MTK Global and does not believe it to be "true" that he is no longer involved.
He added: "It looks like everything MTK related is coming out of Dubai.
“The attempt of establishing MTK USA was not to facilitate adherence to the law but hopefully put a barrier in place to prevent MTK Global from bearing any liability.”
He added: “There’s just no way that Daniel Kinahan can rip his fingerprints off of this in my opinion.”
A judge may now order a default judgement in the case in the coming months.
Montalvo said: “There’s an opportunity for the court to look at all of this stuff from both sides to see what really happened here.
“This may be the first time where both MTK Global and all of their entities including Daniel Kinahan are going to have to answer.
“And if they don’t then they are going into default.”
If a default judgement is ordered, Montalvo and his legal team can get discovery on Kinahan and MTK Global which can include their financials.
And the Irish Mirror understands that civil discovery can be broader that criminal, and information gathered in that process in regards to Kinahan may be passed onto federal authorities.
We previously revealed that lawyer Montalvo may seek to have Kinahan’s assets frozen to pay off the judgement.
It has been reported that their legal team is seeking around $2m in damages.
Kinahan co-founded MTK in 2012, then as MGM, before they claimed he stood away in 2017.
However the company later admitted that the so-called boxing “advisor” still has connections to the firm as he advises some of their fighters and in fact had advised them to sign some prized punchers.
In the original complaint filed on behalf of Heredia, his legal team allege Kinahan is continuing to organise fights for MTK boxers which are “steeped in money obtained from drug trafficking and money laundering.”
It further claims that Kinahan and MTK are in breach of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations Act which was introduced to tackle organised crime in the US.
It says that the parties are doing so by using money from organised crime.
Kinahan remains in his Dubai bolthole and continues to advise professional boxers as well as organising fights.
The High Court here previously accepted submissions as part of the Criminal Assets Bureau’s case against his long-time ally Liam Byrne, that Daniel ran the day to day operations of the Kinahan Organised Crime Group.
Last year, the Special Criminal Court established that the KOCG carries out “execution style murders.”
