Are you shocked?
I am not, because everyone within the boxing industry knows that Manny Pacquiao does not pay attention to his fiances. While many casual boxing fans assume it will be Floyd Mayweather who would end up broke, if these reports are believed to be true it is Pacquiao that needs to keep fighting because his accounts are in shambles.
“The main reason why VQ was hired to look into the missing money was because Manny believed that his fight promoter was not paying him his fair share,” a recent press release, distributed by Michael Lodge, President and CEO of VisionQwest Resources Group, stated. It also shockingly revealed that prior to their involvment, the financial records of the 8-divison world championwere in complete disarray, simply made up of hand-written notes, a series of unorganized emails, and six boxes of receipts. According to the press release, up until VisionQwest was hired in 2010, Pacquiao’s taxes were handled by several different accountants who “simply plugged in numbers supplied by Michael Koncz into the taxation forms and filed them with the IRS”. Evidently, as Pacquiao’s popularity, and more importantly his income, continued to grow, a red flag was raised that prompted the IRS to audit his taxes for the years 2006 and 2007. At that point, Team Pacquiao reached out to VisionQwest to help resolve their tax issues.
Once VisionQwest got involved, the company quickly realized that Manny Pacquiao had no true knowledge of his finanical worth, missing a number of key documents, including “bout contracts, bank statements, bout proceed distributions, endorsement contracts, promoter contracts, co-promoter contracts, and property ownership records” to name a few. At that point, the company began their investigation, agreeing not to request any fees upfront due to the fact that Pacquiao and Koncz informed them that there was a lack of funds and they would be unable to pay until they received either tax refunds or advances for future bouts. Moving forward, VisionQwest attempted to gather all the necessary documentation from Top Rank Promotions, however, what they were given was not enough to fully gain a complete understanding of revenue generated from Pacquiao’s bouts. In a nutshell, Bob Arum and Top Rank became difficult to work with and “would not respond to requests for documentation and answers to questions”.
That being said, from the limited documentation they were able to gather, VisionQwest’s staff discovered “various accounting issues” and became concerned with the a number of questions that remained unanswered. Evidently, they became even more concerned when they discovered “ridiculous amounts of money” being paid to Michael Koncz and, according to the press release, discovered that he was working on behalf of Top Rank, as well as Pacquiao. Soon after these discoveries, representatives of Top Rank no longer responded to inquiries from VisionQwest, however, the company was able to gather documentation for the Nevada State Athletic commission that verified the inconsistencies in reporting. Upon presenting these findings, Pacquiao evidently became upset and informed VisionQwest that he would take the issue up with Top Rank and Michael Koncz, however, he did not want to take any legal actions prior to receiving an advance from Top Rank Promotions for his November 12 bout with Juan Manuel Marquez.
Pacquiao’s instructions were to take no action until September 1, so at that point, VisionQwest put their investigation on hold, presenting Pacquiao with a bill for their services performed thus far. They also expected to be reimbursed for money that was borrowed from them in order to purchase Michael Koncz a home in Orange County. Instead of getting paid, however, the company was later fired by Pacquiao, and they have yet to receive any payments for any of the work that they did.
Floyd Mayweather made a comment at the post fight press conference against Victor Ortiz insinuating that Pacquiao needs him more than he needs Pacquiao. From a legacy standpoint that might not be true, but from a financial standpoint he could be correct.
Boxing is a shady business especially to boxers who do not pay attentions to their contracts and trust hustlers like Bob Arum who has been stealing money for years.
I think Manny Pacquiao is one of the nicest I have ever met, but……………
SMARTEN UP NAS