Floyd Mayweather Jr., aka “Money Mayweather,” recently sued his former manager, Jona Rechnitz, for $175 million. In his lawsuit, Floyd claimed Jona mismanaged his finances and defrauded him. The champion boxer also claimed Jona “mishandled” his $100 million jewelry collection and some of the pieces are missing.
Jona broke his silence after Floyd filed the lawsuit. In an exclusive interview with YouTuber Spencer Cornelia, Jona said Floyd flashes stacks of cash on social media because he pawns his massive jewelry collection to keep up pretenses.
According to Jona, Floyd takes out “loans” on his assets to pay the high monthly pawn shop fees so they don’t sell off his jewelry. In other words, Floyd is cash poor.
Jona provided Spencer with hundreds of receipts, copies of text messages, and court documents that prove Floyd is broke and he leverages his assets every month just to keep his head above water.
Floyd and Jona met in 2013 in New York City at a basketball game. By 2017 Jona became his investment manager, real estate advisor, and banking liaison. Jona helped put deals together for Floyd. But Jona wasn’t on salary. He only made money off commissions from the deals he made for Floyd.
Jona said that by 2020 Floyd was running out of money. So Jona arranged celebrity boxing exhibitions with Logan Paul and other celebs to bring in money.
In a letter to a U.S. District Judge in New York after Jona pled guilty in 2016 to wire fraud and conspiracy, Floyd spoke about Jona’s good character and said Jona helped him to advance his charitable work in the community. Floyd stated he knew Jona when he was being sentenced in 2019 for wire fraud.
Floyd wrote to the judge, “I appreciate you taking the time to read this letter, Your Honor. I would just ask that you consider my personal testimony that Jona Rechnitz is a good person.”
However, in his recent lawsuit, Floyd claims he didn’t know about Jona’s past history of wrongdoing.
In his complaint, Floyd claims Jona “mishandled” 4 of his pricey watches. However, Jona provided text messages and photos of the same watches that were pawned by Floyd.
Jona said Floyd owns a private jet and an expensive automobile collection, but he constantly needs to pawn his jewelry to pay for the storage and maintenance of his jet and cars.
Other text messages show Floyd also pawned his girlfriends’ Birkin handbags. In another text message, Floyd asks his pawn broker to text him the balance that he owes in fees to keep his collection from being sold.
The pawn dealer text him back that Floyd owes $1.4 million just in fees. “I haven’t sold any of the pieces. I need $360,000 by Friday so the fees don’t keep adding up,” the pawn dealer wrote.
Jona told Spencer that all of Floyd’s assets are depreciable assets, meaning they lose value over time. Jona said Floyd’s $100 million jewelry and watch collection is probably only worth about $30 million today.