Star boxer Manny Pacquiao is suing a top law firm and their client for allegedly fabricating a case against him, falsely accusing him of a ‘terror campaign’ and covering up evidence proving the ‘extortion’ ruse.
Gabriel Rueda, a waiter at celebrity hotspot Craig’s restaurant in West Hollywood, sued Pacquiao in 2016 claiming he was owed an $8 million fee for connecting the boxer’s coach with then-CBS president Leslie Moonves to arrange his blockbuster May 2015 fight against Floyd Mayweather.
Rueda claimed Pacquiao reneged on the deal and terrorized him into submission by texting him photos of dismembered bodies and had his tires slashed, demanding $42 million in damages.
But the case was thrown out last year, with the judge finding no evidence for the claims.
Hitting back with his own lawsuit filed in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Pacquiao says he found a bombshell email allegedly proving the waiter admitted his entire case was baseless just days after it began.
‘Gabriel did it from his heart and asked for nothing in return. No finder’s fee, no compensation,’ Rueda allegedly wrote in an email to his publicists at the time.
Manny Pacquiao is suing a law firm and their client for allegedly fabricating a case against him
The message never came to light despite a judge ordering Rueda’s messages be turned over in 2018, and was only uncovered from a forensic analysis by Pacquiao’s team in 2023.
Pacquiao’s lawyers say they traced the gruesome texts of body parts back to a mass-distributed cartel scam.
Records cited by his new lawsuit allegedly show identical threats were sent to more than 100 other people unconnected to the case.
After losing the case, Withers Bergman tried to withdraw as Rueda’s lawyers, and his attorney Amman Khan’s profile was removed from the firm’s website.
Over a decade on from their first encounter, Pacquiao is set for a stunning rematch with Mayweather in Las Vegas later this year.
A Hollywood waiter sued Pacquiao in 2016 after claiming he was owed an $8million fee for helping to arrange his blockbuster May 2015 fight against Floyd Mayweather (pictured)
The fight icons will meet again in September in the first ever boxing match at ‘The Sphere’ off the strip in Sin City, it was announced earlier this week.
The bout is set to be globally broadcast on Netflix as part of the streamer’s growing investment into live sports.
Mayweather, 49, first has to take on Mike Tyson, 59, in an exhibition bout this spring. A date and location has not yet been confirmed.
Meanwhile Pacquiao, 47, has a warm-up fight against Ruslan Provodnikov on April 18, almost a year after his draw with then-WBC welterweight champion Mario Barrios.
