Mike Tyson Is Filing For Bankruptcy, Citing Spending Sprees He was once worth 300-million dollars, but now former heavyweight champ and part time Las Vegan Mike Tyson is filing for bankruptcy. Court records show the boxer owes about 27-million dollars to creditors for his lavish spending sprees. News 3's Gerard Ramalho reports Tyson owes a local jewelry store more than 170-thousand dollars. Tyson did like his ice. Almost all of his jewelry was covered in diamonds, and most of it he purchased at a local jewelery store. The owner says when Tyson was in town, he would visit the store a couple times a month. He usually bought on credit, and until now he always paid his debts. They called him Iron Mike, but actually the boxing champ preferred platinum and diamonds. This Las Vegas jewelry store was Mike Tyson's favorite. "He always had an open account with me, and picked up whatever he wanted and always made good on it." Owner Mordechai Yerushalmi says he considered Tyson a good friend and regularly offerred him credit to purchase items like diamond neckalces, watches and rings. And these weren't ordinary pieces. "Now, just to give you some perspctive, the price tag on this necklace is 68-thousand dollars. The one mike Tyson bought was actually 4 times as long and the diamonds were twice the size." The 80 carat purchase still hasn't been paid, but Mordechai says he's not worried. "I have faith in him and I'm pretty sure all his fans do." And here's a piece of irony. a Tyson autographed boxing glove still hangs on the jewelry store wall, but look at the inscription. It reads, "I need good deals." The one-time undisputed champ may now be hoping for the best deal of his life, only these disputes won't be settled in the ring, but in a courtroom. "He'll come around. Mike will come around." Tyson has no fights currently scheduled, no license in Nevada and on top of all, his current debts. He's also being sued by boxer Lenox Lewis for 20 million dollars. Lewis claims Tyson broke a contract to fight him a 2nd time. Tyson may come into some money if he wins his own lawsuits against Promoter Don King and Showtime Entertainment.
More on how someone could spend $500 million 'Iron Mike' Tyson Files for Bankruptcy Sun August 3, 2003 02:15 PM ET NEW YORK (Reuters) - Troubled boxing champ Mike Tyson, once estimated to be worth at least $300 million, has filed for bankruptcy in an attempt to bring some order to his finances, his lawyer said on Sunday. Tyson, currently facing assault and disorderly conduct charges stemming from a scuffle in a Brooklyn hotel in June, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan on Friday, according to his attorney Debra Grassgreen. The one-time heavyweight boxing champion -- who served three years in prison in the mid-1990s on a rape conviction and was suspended from professional boxing for biting the ear of heavyweight boxer Riddick Bowe during a 1997 bout -- opted for bankruptcy after years of financial mismanagement and free spending habits that burned through hundreds of millions of dollars in earnings. According to media reports, Tyson amassed and spent between $300 million and $500 million. "As a professional fighter, who relied on others to manage his affairs, he discovered that his debts far exceeded his assets," Sunday's New York Post quoted Grassgreen as saying. "Now, he has taken the lead in bringing order to his financial affairs." Tyson, nicknamed "Iron Mike," also blames ring promoter Don King for his financial ills, the Post said. Tyson has a $100-million lawsuit pending against King that goes to trial in September, claiming King cheated him out of millions after he got out of prison in 1995 and went back to fighting for the promoter. Tyson's financial outlook has been deteriorating for some time and media reports have speculated for over a year that he would have to file for bankruptcy due to mounting legal fees and lavish spending on a series of homes and cars as well as clothing, jewelry and even pets such as pigeons, cats and tigers. In 2002 he claimed lack of funds prevented him from paying estranged wife Monica Turner Tyson $10 million in a divorce settlement. During the divorce proceedings it was reported that Tyson had spent $9 million on legal fees alone from 1995 to 1997, as well as $230,000 on pagers and cell phones, $410,000 on a birthday party, $8,100 for the care of his pet tigers and $65,000 for limousine services alone. Tyson has also alleged that his ex-wife failed to send a promised multi-million dollar payment to the Internal Revenue Service and that Turner squandered millions on a lavish lifestyle.
