Boxing: Tua gets uppercut on trademark

By PHIL TAYLOR

Boxer David Tua may not be able to fight under his trademark name Tuaman.

The trademark is owned by a Vanuatu company controlled by Tua's former manager, Martin Pugh.

The shares in the company, Sports Tech, are in the name of Richard Gregory, a longtime associate of Pugh's. Gregory has criminal convictions and was once told by Judge Mick Brown that he would "rot in a turret" if he offended while on bail.

The trademarks, registered with the Intellectual Property Office, give Sports Tech control of the Tuaman brand, including use in boxing promotions, merchandising and in film, sound and computer products.

Sports Tech also has registered a $5 million charge (to protect a claimed financial interest) against a 51ha block of coastal land at Pakiri bought by the boxer two years ago for $7.5 million.

The Herald has learned there are at least 10 cashcards that can draw on a bank account in Sports Tech's name.

They are available to Kevin Barry (Tua's former manager), Pugh, Pugh's girlfriend, an associate of Pugh's in a business unrelated to Tua, and to Gregory.

There does not appear to be a card issued for Tua's use, although Tuaman money is understood to have been transferred to Sports Tech.

Tua sacked Pugh and Barry last month after becoming concerned about the accounts. The boxer's new group of advisers include lawyers Luke Kemp and Tony Molloy, QC, and an accountant.

The group's key concerns are the lending of Tuaman group's money in unsecured loans (including to Sports Tech), excessive spending and overdrawing of salary entitlements.

Tua had no idea the Tuaman trademark was owned by a Vanuatu company until his new team found the documents, a Weekend Herald source said.

Tua had met Gregory but had no idea what he did, the source said.

"The guy is a painter and decorator. He [Tua] thought he did odd jobs for Martin."

Gregory has been a director or shareholder of companies associated with Pugh, including one listed as the owner of a million-dollar Birkenhead property that was Pugh's home and the original address given for the Tuaman companies.

Pugh said last week that he would not comment until after court action he has filed against Tua's new advisers.

Asked this month whether he was associated with Sports Tech, Pugh said: "Oh, no. Don't be so ridiculous." He said Gregory was a "customer".

But Sports Tech and Gregory are listed as shareholders along with Pugh in Monstra Entertainment, another of Pugh's companies.

Gregory, who changed his name from Richard Michael Booth, has been out of the country for two of the past three years. Passports have been issued in both names. He left in March and appears not to have returned.

In 1995, as Booth, he was convicted of unlawfully taking a $109,000 luxury powerboat for a joyride.

Judge Brown, who gave him a six-month suspended jail sentence, said he was astonished that Booth claimed he could not pay reparation when he spent $200 a week on food and restaurants and $100 on marijuana.

The boat Gregory admitted stealing belongs to Pugh through a company Pugh controls.

Three months after Gregory first appeared in court for taking the boat, and after Judge Brown's "rot in a turret" comment, a company was formed with Booth as sole shareholder and director. That company is the listed owner of Pugh's Birkenhead home.