Black Spruce Says It Cannot Pay Floyd Mayweather Distributions

Josh Gotlib’s Black Spruce Management is stuck in the middle of a legal bloodbath between Floyd Mayweather and his former trusted adviser, Jona Rechnitz.

Mayweather’s Vada Properties invested in Black Spruce’s Manhattan rental portfolio in 2024 and 2025. But the firm claims it cannot pay any distributions from the portfolio to Mayweather because of Mayweather’s ongoing lawsuit against Rechnitz, in which the former star boxer accuses Rechnitz of fraud.

Black Spruce this week asked a New York state court judge to determine if a court can hold the distributions as the case is being litigated.

Rechnitz, his partner Ayal Frist and Frist’s company Frist Apex Ventures claim they are entitled to 20 percent of the distributions from the rental portfolio, according to the court filings.

“If Black Spruce pays 100 percent of the distributions to Mayweather and Vada Properties, it faces claims from Rechnitz, Frist, and Frist Apex asserting entitlement to 20 percent of the distributions,” Avi Schick, an attorney for Black Spruce, said in a Sep. 8 filing. “If Black Spruce pays 20 percent of the distributions to Rechnitz, Frist or Frist Apex, it faces claims from Mayweather and Vada Properties for distributing funds to an unauthorized recipient.”

Black Spruce’s legal filings add another layer to Mayweather’s messy investment with the powerhouse real estate firm led by Gotlib and Meyer Orbach.

In 2024, Mayweather went on an acquisition spree in New York City, Chicago and Miami, generating headlines that the former boxer bought a 1,000-unit affordable rental portfolio in New York City from Black Spruce for $402 million and invested another $100 million in Orbach and Gotlib’s luxury Manhattan rental portfolio. But Mayweather never acquired the entire portfolio.

Mayweather only acquired a small percentage of interest in the 1,000-unit portfolio with an option to acquire more over time, Business Insider reported in March 2025. In the luxury rental portfolio, Mayweather acquired a small equity investment, which has since been liquidated, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Mayweather filed a lawsuit in May, claiming he was defrauded by his friend and business partner.

The boxer claimed that Rechnitz provided false information about his deals, including telling him that he would be acquiring the entire 1,000-unit portfolio, not a minority interest.

Rechnitz also took control of some of Mayweather’s jewelry and private jets. Mayweather alleges Rechnitz directed him to sell his Gulfstream jet to an unknown buyer for an unknown amount, and that Rechnitz pledged about $100 million worth of jewelry to two Miami jewelers in exchange for just $13 million.

Mayweather named Rechnitz’s alleged associate Ayal Frist and Alexander Seligson, a New York City attorney, as defendants.

Morris Missry, an attorney representing Rechnitz when the lawsuit was filed in May, said the claims would be “refuted by substantial documentary evidence, including Mr. Mayweather’s own correspondence.”

Mayweather’s “gambling issues, prolific spending habits, monies owed to third-party creditors and IRS tax liens and levys [sic], as well as other unseemly behavior” would come to light during court proceedings, he said in a statement to TRD at the time.

Rechnitz, Frist and Frist’s company, Frist Apex Ventures, have not filed a response to the allegations. Rechnitz and Frist have until Sep. 25 to respond to the complaint.

Seligson’s lawyer filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, claiming that Mayweather did not plead any facts showing that Seligson had actual knowledge of the relationship between Rechnitz and Mayweather.