Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson has been accused of putting up 50,000 dollars for a contract to kill the members of a gang who murdered his bodyguard in 2000.
New York, June 13 : Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson has been accused of putting up 50,000 dollars for a contract to kill the members of a gang who murdered his bodyguard in 2000.
A government witness on Thursday testified that it was to kill the members of a Brooklyn drug gang that Tyson chipped in such a huge amount of money.
It was revealed by a former member of the violent Cash Money Brothers gang that Tyson and a thug named Muhammad Nur, who was also close to the victim, each offered 50,000 dollars for killing CMB leaders Damion (World) Hardy and Edward (Taz) Cooke.
When Assistant U.S. Attorney James Loonam questioned why would Tyson put a hit out on Taz and World, the witness replied that it was due to his friendship with the victim.
"He was close friends with 'Homicide,'" the New York Daily News quoted witness Dwayne Meyers as saying, referring to victim Darryl Baum by his nickname.
Baum was suspected of pumping nine bullets into 50 Cent a month before he was killed, and the rapper refers to him in the song "Many Men".
The alleged contract was revealed at the trial of Abubakr Raheem, a reputed associate of drug dealer Hardy who is charged with participating in two murders.
ANI