Tua 'had to ask for own money'

An administrator for David Tua's company Tuaman Inc has told the High Court at Auckland the heavyweight boxer's managers helped themselves to his money and charged unrelated expenses to the business.

Jeannette Grant accused Martin Pugh of defrauding Tua and said she watched him cut and paste the signature of Maselino Masoe, whom he also managed, on to a fight agreement.

Ms Grant, who was employed by Mr Pugh, was involved in Tuaman Inc's administration throughout. She was giving evidence on the second day of a civil case in which Tua and his former managers are arguing over the ownership of a 50ha block of coastal land at Pakiri.

Martin Pugh and Kevin Barry, Tua's other former manager, claim they own half of a $7.5 million property, because the land was brought through Tuaman Inc, of which they each have a 25 per cent share.

Tua claims the land was bought through the company only for tax reasons and it was for him alone.

Ms Grant said she also understood that Pakiri belonged to Tua alone and that while it was in the company name, the company was solely owned by the boxer.

Ms Grant said all of Tua's income went directly into the company's accounts, and he had to go through Mr Pugh or herself when he wanted money.

"It seemed to me that Kevin and Martin wanted to keep David in the dark financially. Matters would get unpleasant if they found that I had discussed [financial] things with David.

"Poor David wasn't even allowed to have any money. He had to ask me."

Ms Grant said Mr Pugh and Mr Barry had been helping themselves to money she believed was Tua's.

"I now realise Kevin and Martin should have received nothing except any dividends that the company might have declared."

She said Mr Pugh also charged expenses from unrelated matters to Tuaman Inc, Mr Pugh's friend Richard Booth was being paid for seemingly doing nothing and that records relating to $900,000 from a fight were destroyed. That money went into Mr Barry's Team Barry's account when it should have gone into Tuaman Inc.

Ms Grant is now doing the accounts for a company promoting Tua's next fight.

In opening the case for Mr Barry and Mr Pugh yesterday afternoon, lawyer Justin Toebes said neither of the men consented to Pakiri being purchased through the company for Tua alone.

Mr Toebes said Mr Pugh had been personally interested in the property since 1997 and had made formal legal offers to buy it.

"It's impossible to think that once this opportunity finally arrived in 2001, he simply abandoned it on the basis that David Tua was to take over that opportunity."

Peter Macky, Tuaman Inc's lawyer for the sale, said that during a meeting at the Pakiri property both Tua and Mr Pugh discussed building homes on the land and he understood it was being bought by the company for the company.

He said he had attended several social functions with Tua but the boxer never spoke of the property as being solely his own.

Mr Macky said he could not understand why Anthony Hayman, whom he arranged to survey the property, had a different view.

Mr Hayman told the court he understood that Tua was the sole purchaser and Mr Pugh was his business manager.

Chartered accountant Tony Forlong told the court Mr Pugh had "conceded" that Tuaman Inc held the Pakiri property for Tua.

Mr Forlong said this occurred at a meeting in August 2003 after he was hired by Tua to make sense of company documents the boxer gave him.

Tua had asked him to "work out for him what had become of the money he had earned from his boxing over the past four years or so".

"When I asked Mr Pugh about it, he said that Pakiri had come up because he had been looking at the property for himself personally for some time," Mr Forlong said.

"He said that it had then occurred to him that it would be a good investment for David Tua."

Mr Forlong said when Tua asked directly who owned the land, Pugh had replied it was bought for Tua but added that he had an interest in it because he had given a bank security over his home for the acquisition of the apartment Tua lives in.

"I was not able to understand how it had anything to do with Pakiri."

Mr Forlong described Tuaman Inc's financial documentation - which included a balance sheet that didn't make sense - as "simplistic and unfinished".

"The longer he [Mr Pugh] spoke, the more it became clear that Mr Pugh had no idea what a company is, or how it works."

THE CASE

* David Tua and his former managers, Kevin Barry and Martin Pugh, are arguing over the ownership of a $7.5 million block of coastal land at Pakiri.

* The boxer says the land was bought for him alone and the first he knew of his managers claiming to own a portion of it was in July 2003, just before he sacked them.

* Will there be other court cases? Most likely. Martin Pugh and Kevin Barry have indicated they will seek to enforce their management contract with Tua which they say the boxer has unjustifiably broken.

* Tua claims an interest in other assets, such as a $5 million property owned by Pugh and partner Sally Cross' family trust.