MTK Global to cease operations in wake of sanctions against Daniel Kinahan

MTK Global continues to insist that it has had no direct involvement with Daniel Kinahan since 2017. File Picture

Boxing and MMA management company MTK Global has announced that it is ceasing operations, a week after the United States Treasury Department placed a $5m (4.6m) bounty on the head of its founder Daniel Kinahan.

The firm said it has faced "unprecedented levels of unfair scrutiny and criticism" since the announcement of sanctions against Kinahan, and that many leading promoters and sponsors have cut ties with it as a result.

Earlier this week, the company's CEO, Bob Yalen, announced his resignation, citing the "intense pressure" levelled at the firm in recent weeks. MTK Global continues to insist that it has had no direct involvement with Daniel Kinahan since 2017. 

"Despite repeated assurances in this regard, unfounded allegations about his ongoing association with us and our fighters persist," it said in a statement.

"Since leading promoters have now informed us that they will be severing all ties with MTK and will no longer work with our fighters, we have taken the difficult decision to cease operations at the end of this month."

The firm had represented several high-profile boxers, including WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, Carl Frampton, Michael Conlan and Billy Joe Saunders.

Last week, the US Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued a raft of unprecedented sanctions against several key figures of the Kinahan crime organisation.

A $5m reward for information that might lead to the disruption of the organisation and the arrests or convictions of Kinahan family members was also issued. Daniel Kinahan, his brother, Christopher Kinahan Jnr, and their father, Christopher 'Christy' Kinahan Snr were all named in OFAC's statement. 

The sanctions are believed to be the result of years of close collaboration and intelligence gathering by OFAC, the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the US Department of State, US Customs and Border Protection, An Garda Síochána, the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency (NCA), and the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation.

Following the announcement that it was ceasing operations, MTK Global also appeared to scrub its website. Any visitors to the site are now automatically directed to a company statement on its cessation.