One year after Floyd Mayweather Jr. claimed he had “100 percent” trust in business advisor and convicted felon Jona Rechnitz, the champion prizefighter is suing him for allegedly stealing at least $175 million – the proceeds from sales of real estate, jewelry, and a Gulfstream G-IV private jet.
In a complaint filed Thursday evening in Manhattan County Supreme Court, Mayweather claims Rechnitz, a New York City real estate developer who in 2016 was brought up on federal bribery charges and later sentenced to five months in prison and five months of house arrest, fleeced him amid a “multi-year fraudulent scheme” carried out with the help of two associates.
“As they say, the gloves are off,” Mayweather’s attorney Leo Jacobs told The Independent. “The complaint speaks for itself.”
The lawsuit follows news of a court ruling ordering Mayweather to pay nearly $1 million in back child support, plus $33,000 a month, to a dancer at his Las Vegas strip club with whom he fathered a four-year-old daughter. Last month, Mayweather and Rechnitz were jointly sued for allegedly failing to pay a $100,000 private jet bill after a flight to the Caribbean.
Rechnitz, who now lives in Southern California, did not respond Friday to emailed requests for comment. Calls to his personal cell phone went straight to voicemail.
Mayweather, 49, is an undefeated pro boxer with a 50-0 record across five weight classes but “no formal post-secondary education and no formal training in finance, accounting, real estate or commercial law,” his complaint opens.
“Mr. Mayweather has, at all relevant times, relied on advisors, attorneys, accountants and managers to handle his financial and transactional affairs,” the complaint states.
In 2017, the 43-year-old Rechnitz began cultivating a relationship with Mayweather after being introduced to him by a mutual acquaintance, according to the complaint. It says Rechnitz presented himself to Mayweather as a highly sophisticated real estate investor, and soon involved himself in the champ’s personal and business affairs.
At the time, Mayweather was unaware that Rechnitz had a fraud conviction on his record, or a civil fraud judgment entered against him in a case involving Hollywood producer Victor Noval, the complaint contends.
Over the next several years, Rechnitz insinuated himself deeper and deeper into Mayweather’s affairs, and by 2024 had “assumed the de facto role of Mr. Mayweather’s investment manager, real estate advisor, and banking liaison,” the complaint goes on.
At a New York real estate forum in May 2025, Mayweather told the audience, “I trust Jona – not just 10 percent, 20 percent – 100 percent.”
“Jona is my friend,” Mayweather said of a crop of fresh theft allegations against Rechnitz at the time. “Whatever his case was, he dealt with it like a man, and we’re going to continue to do business.”
Yet, through it all, Rechnitz was quietly pilfering millions from Mayweather as the champ defended him in public, according to the complaint.
On July 1, 2024, Rechnitz convinced Mayweather to put $7.5 million into an investment deal he said would generate a handsome profit within 12 months, the complaint continues. However, it alleges, the purported deal was a lie.
“No investment was made,” the complaint states. “No return was paid. No documentation of any underlying investment has been provided to [Mayweather]. The principal has not been returned.”
That same month, the complaint says Rechnitz took out a $13 million loan on Mayweather’s behalf, secured by a property Mayweather owned in Miami Beach. Of that, $6.5 million went to the purchase of a 1996 Gulfstream G-IV, while $4 million went to Mayweather’s boxing promotions firm.
The jet was sold some 18 months later, but, the complaint says, Mayweather “does not know who acquired the aircraft,” and claims he “has received no accounting of the proceeds — less than one-third of the loan proceeds.”
Rechnitz continued to bilk Mayweather, according to the complaint. In October 2024, Rechnitz took out $16.4 million in cross-collateralized loans secured by liens on four properties Mayweather owned, the complaint continues. While $2.5 million of the loan proceeds was wired to Mayweather Promotions, the complaint says nearly $9 million went to an LLC run by one of Rechnitz’s associates.
Mayweather has “never received an adequate explanation” about why the funds went there, the complaint goes on.
As 2024 came to an end and 2025 got underway, Rechnitz steered Mayweather into a commercial real estate deal for $27 million, which required a $1 million deposit to guarantee the purchase, according to the complaint. However, it alleges, Rechnitz instead sent the money to a jeweler in Manhattan, and the purported property acquisition fell through.
“No funds were returned,” the complaint states.
Mayweather unwittingly lost another $2.1 million in proceeds from a property refinancing Rechnitz orchestrated, and roughly $15 million more from a settlement with a New York real estate developer he had been involved with, when Rechnitz diverted the proceeds to himself without Mayweather’s knowledge, according to the complaint.
Rechnitz’s alleged thievery only got more brazen from there, the complaint says.
In August 2025, four months after Mayweather professed his total confidence in Rechnitz’s integrity, Rechnitz pledged $100 million worth of Mayweather’s jewelry to a pair of Miami dealers as collateral for $13 million in loans, according to the complaint.
None of that money, which amounted to less than 14 percent of the value of the pieces, went to Mayweather, he was never provided any accounting of the transactions, the complaint states. The set included several Rolex watches, multiple watches by Jacob & Co., a diamond necklace, gold chains, and numerous other items, a handwritten list filed in court as an exhibit shows.
