Tax probe for Tua company

By PHIL TAYLOR

The tax department is poised to investigate the company that ran David Tua's boxing business.

Tua's chartered accountant has described the accounts as a shambles.

The Herald understands a tax liability of about $2 million is flagged in those accounts.

Independent accountants appointed by the High Court have almost completed compiling a new set of accounts of Tuaman Inc Ltd's affairs going back to when co-manager Martin Pugh took over the financial affairs of the company 4 1/2 years ago.

A document on the file of the court case between Tua and Pugh and co-manager Kevin Barry notes the interest of the Inland Revenue Department, and says tax investigators agreed to put an inquiry "on ice" while the court case progressed.

Tua and his witnesses accuse his managers of cheating the boxer.

They say he is owed $4 million.

Pugh and Barry say they have done nothing wrong, and believe they will be vindicated once the court-appointed accountants file their report.

Tua, 31, has earned purses of about $20 million, but a Weekend Herald investigation has found that far from being financially set up, he has no assets in his name except a share of his parents' Mangere home.

His concerns about his management started before his November 2000 world title fight against heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis and are almost certain to have affected his preparation and performance.

Tua went the distance, but was well beaten.

Barry acknowledges, in an affidavit on the case file, that Tua's concerns had an effect and "our world title challenge was lost before David even stepped into the ring".

"In hindsight, how could he possibly be mentally prepared to fight Lennox Lewis, the best heavyweight fighter of the last decade ... boxing is as much mental as physical, so for him to be weighed down with believing that I had done him wrong was something he could not handle."

The break-up of the Tua-Barry relationship came after a night-time raid on Pugh's offices last year when Tua and two associates collected boxes of documents and accounts.

Information gleaned from the papers and the evidence of a former Pugh employee have prompted Tua and his supporters to accuse Pugh of fraud, misappropriation and forgery, court documents show.

The boxer and his witnesses allege Pugh has inappropriately paid $1.6 million of Tuaman money to associates, and that Pugh and Barry took for their own use a further $1 million held by Tuaman Inc.

Some of the money was funnelled through a Vanuatu-registered company allegedly set up by Pugh to cover up "conversions, misappropriations and failures to account", the court documents say.

Pugh and Barry dispute the accuracy of the accounts prepared for Tua on the basis of the papers "stolen" from Pugh's office.

Barry, an Olympic silver medallist who guided Tua into the world of professional boxing after the Samoan South Aucklander won a bronze at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, says his one-time loyal charge has turned on him.

"This is a cruel and calculating attempt to get everything he can before retiring," said Barry.

In his affidavit, Pugh said Tua's new advisers were naive about the boxing world, and that the financial arrangements he had set up were designed to protect the boxer.

Pugh denied receiving any money not owed to him and said he would repay any that could be proven he was not entitled to have.