Boxing legend Floyd Mayweather announced that he has filed a $100 million defamation lawsuit against Business Insider, its parent company Insider Inc., and reporter Daniel Geiger, alleging they published a knowingly false and defamatory article that misrepresented Mayweather’s real estate investments.
The lawsuit, which was filed on Wednesday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, claimed that Geiger repeatedly ignored documentary proof of Mayweather’s ownership and business success, refused multiple invitations to review verified transaction records, and used unnamed sources and innuendo in a March 31 article titled “Floyd Mayweather Jr. Bragged About a $400 Million Property Deal. There’s Just One Problem.”
The article, which Geiger co-wrote with Ellen Thomas, questioned Mayweather’s announcement that he acquired a portfolio 62 rental apartment buildings in upper Manhattan. The article’s authors alleged they interviewed a man who self-identified as “James McNair, an executive involved in Mayweather’s business ventures,” but the article asserted he may have been an impostor because his voice was supposedly “starkly different from existing recordings of McNair.”
The article also attempted a guilt-by-association angle by noting Mayweather’s unrelated work with Jona Rechnitz, who helped him in the promotion of a sports supplement line. The article noted that “Rechnitz pleaded guilty and served as a government witness in a federal criminal corruption case against Norman Seabrook, then the head of the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association, a union that represents jail guards in New York City.” However, the article made no connection between Rechnitz and Mayweather’s real estate investing.
The lawsuit alleged that Geiger repeatedly harassed Mayweather’s friends, family, and business associates — often with repeated telephone calls, many of them late at night — and made racist remarks suggesting Mayweather was unqualified to own real estate. Geiger’s article claimed Mayweather’s lawyers declined to provide comment on the piece.
Mayweather is seeking $100 million in damages, a formal retraction, and injunctive relief. The lawsuit alleges three causes of action: defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and prima facie tort.
“Floyd Mayweather earned his legacy through discipline and hard work, both in and out of the ring,” said attorney Bobby Samini of Samini Block APC. “This lawsuit isn’t just about setting the record straight — it’s about holding the press accountable when they cross the line from journalism into calculated character assassination.”
Business Insider and Geiger offered no immediate comment on the lawsuit.
Photo courtesy of Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s Instagram page
