BoxRec

A business transaction gone sideways has resulted in federal prison time for one of the sport’s most active promoters.

Greg Cohen was found guilty of wire fraud and sentenced to six months in a New York State-based federal prison in a ruling handed down by The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. According to court documents—of which BS.com has obtained a copy—the founder and CEO of Greg Cohen Promotions was formally charged with defrauding an individual of false pretenses.

The matter is unrelated to boxing or any athletes Cohen has represented, but rather surrounding a loan he secured for a stock investment which never took place. An investigation conducted by Mason Posilkin, a special agent for the United States Attorney's Office discovered that Cohen entered a non-boxing related business arrangement around April 2016, accepting $200,000 for an investment transaction alleged to have been worth more than twice the amount, only for the deal to never occur.

Special Agent Posilkin alleges that the incident extended through December 2017, at which point it was sent over to and investigated by the United States Attorney’s Office.

Judge Katharine H. Parker authorized an arrest warrant for Cohen this past January, which at the time alleged that Cohen never paid repaid the $200,000. According to information obtained by BS.com, Cohen cooperated to the point of extenuating circumstances believed to result in a punishment absent jail time. Despite pleas from character witnesses and members of Cohen’s community, the federal court felt it was fit to send him to prison.

Under federal law for sentences not exceeding one year require the offending party to serve 100% of the imposed time. BS.com has learned through legal sources with knowledge of the case that there exists room for Cohen to at least have days at a time of supervised freedom in exemplary compliance with institutional disciplinary regulations.

Cohen is required to surrender to federal authorities within 60 days of sentencing, by no later than January 20, 2020. Upon completion of his sentence, Cohen will then be subject to three years of supervised release and 150 hours of community service.

Greg Cohen Promotions represents more than two dozen fighters, including unbeaten heavyweight contender Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller and former secondary middleweight titlist Rob Brant.

By Jake Donovan

Totally unrelated to Boxing..

Eddie should be careful in the States..

Doesn't Philly PR shill for him here?

margaret thatcher wrote: ↑25 Nov 2019, 20:49 Doesn't Philly PR shill for him here?

Well he ain’t today..

Boxing promoter Greg Cohen, busted for wire fraud, enters prison Feb. 7

The troubled boxing business veteran was originally supposed to report for his prison stint this week.

Boxing promoter Greg Cohen was due to report to prison on Jan. 22, after pleading guilty to wire fraud at the US District Court, Southern District.

But the Livingston, New Jersey resident — who holds a portion of promotional rights to heavyweight Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller and boasts a good-sized stable of talent (see the full GCP roster here) — has been granted extra time before he serves a six month sentence.

Cohen, who has worked with notable pugilists like Hasim Rahman and ex-middleweight titlist Rob Brant, will serve time and then be on probation for three years. He will also need to perform 150 hours of community service, preferably assisting victims of financial crimes.

The terms of oversight are strict — the 50-year-old Cohen must comply with terms of his probation in order to open a line of credit. He also must participate in an outpatient mental health program.

Cohen didn’t answer a message left for him, asking him about the changed status of his report date, and asking at which facility he will serve his time.

On Jan. 17, Cohen’s legal team asked the court to allow Cohen to report to serve his sentence on Feb. 17, because, it was asserted, Cohen hadn’t received his assignment as to what facility he’d be residing for the six-month stint. The court replied that Cohen could get extra time before reporting, but not as much as requested. Cohen must report to his designated penal institution on Feb. 7.

The feds asserted that Cohen, between (on or about) Apr. 2017 to (on or about) Dec. 2017, schemed to defraud a victim, by getting an unnamed man to invest in a supposed stock transaction. Cohen told the mark that an investment manager would handle the deal, and guaranteed the man an eye-popping return. He said he’d have skin in the game, and would invest $450,000 in this can’t-miss endeavor. The man blew the whistle when he became suspicious, and, it turns out, the money manager Cohen mentioned knew nothing about any such investment.

The boxing deal-maker said that he and the money manager had succeeded about 80 times in obtaining restricted stock from a company, before the stock was made available to the general public. The stock price would appreciate heavily once shares were released for purchase to the masses, Cohen told the victim. The duped investor liked the sound of the deal, so he wired Cohen $200,000. The fight game fixture said it would take about three months for the supposed ship to come in. In Nov. 2017, the man grew tired of Cohen’s explanations and excuses, and reached out to the firm where the wizard of a money manager worked, according to Cohen. The money manager’s attorney informed the victim that he had no knowledge of the deal Cohen had dangled.

That attorney tried to learn the truth of the matter and reached out to Cohen. The promoter said that he was about to undergo an unspecified surgery, and then, days later, he told the attorney that he was sedated, on morphine. A few days later, when asked to shed light on the supposed deal, he told the attorney he was back in the hospital, due to complications from his alleged surgery. The money manager’s attorney then contacted law enforcement. Soon after, an arrest warrant for Cohen was issued.

A 2018 suit filed by Cliff Mass, who worked for Cohen, is still pending. Mass asserts that he invested heavily into Cohen’s promotional company, and was promised by Cohen that his investment would pay dividends. The promoter, he alleges to the court, didn’t make good on his promises, and so Mass is seeking to have the court compel Cohen to pay up. The promoter is slated to be deposed by Mass’ legal counsel in June, per court records.

More than a few boxers contacted after news broke in late Nov. 2019 that Cohen had been busted for wire fraud stated that their dealings with him had been unsatisfactory. Tony Luis and Austin Trout shared their negative assessments of Cohen’s handling of their career, while Samuel Clarkson, Lateef Kayode, and TV producer Mark Fratto resorted to court actions to get Cohen to pay what he owed them. A fellow promoter, Keith Veltre, also had to drag Cohen to court to collect money fronted, so a co-promoted fight night could transpire.

Boxing is one of those businesses which enjoys some similarities with the traveling circus. The show must always go on. Fighters, like Cem Killic, a 25-year-old German-born California resident signed to Greg Cohen Promotions, have reached out and asked about their status with GCP; Kilic specifically did so before his Jan. 11 super middleweight showdown with Steven Nelson in Atlantic City. The answer?

“They told me that his assistants would take care of it,” Killic said, “and he would make sure everything is good before any stuff happens, like you heard, before he goes on vacation for a little while. So, that’s what they said, and what I’m counting on.”

Greg Cohen’s recent days as a convict are almost over, but given the floundering state of the boxing economy, he may find that his hands are still shackled as a free man.

The New Jersey-based promoter is projected to be released from federal prison on August 2, according to a spokesperson with the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Cohen, 51, was slapped with a six-month prison term last year for one count of wire fraud unrelated to boxing, a federal offense. The sentence stems from an incident in 2016, in which Cohen had induced a victim to pay him $200,000 for a stock investment that was never made. After months of prevarication, Cohen subsequently pleaded guilty and entered into a plea agreement with the government, while agreeing to repay the $200,000. Per the terms of his sentence, Cohen will have three years of supervised release and 150 hours of community service.

Cohen is currently incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution Otisville, in Otisville, New York.

The promoter is in for a rude awakening upon his release. Like everyone else in boxing, Cohen will be tasked with preserving his fragile business from the dramatic fallout of the deadly Covid-19 pandemic, which has decimated the sporting industry. According to his website, Cohen currently promotes around 20-25 active fighters, many of whom will be hard-pressed to find work in the ring anytime soon. Unlike the bigger promotional entities, Cohen does not have an output deal with a network.

Cohen’s woes do not end there. The most important fighter in his stable, the mercurial heavyweight contender Jarrell Miller, recently tested positive – once again – for the banned substance GW1516 in a VADA-administered test ahead of a televised fight against Jerry Forrest on July 9 on ESPN. (Forrest wound up losing a decision to late-replacement Carlos Takam). The bout was supposed to ring in Miller’s new multi-fight contract with co-promoter Top Rank.

Since Cohen’s incarceration, former fighters like Tony Luis, Austin Trout, and Samuel Clarkson, as well as television producers like Mark Fratto, have expressed their less than savory experiences with the promoter.

Cohen is still dealing with another legal kerfuffle, in which a former employee, Clifford Mass, is accusing him of fraud over an unfulfilled investment agreement. The parties are currently in the discovery process.

From Boxing Scene