NYC gang witnesses link Tyson to murder plots; boxer: it's 'totally untrue'

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson has been linked to two murder plots in an obscure racketeering case involving a drug gang in his old neighborhood. Witnesses in the trial have testified that he was the person who funded one scheme. In the other, Tyson himself was considered a potential target, but was spared for religious reasons. Tyson has denied knowing anything about the mayhem surrounding a ruthless drug gang at the center of the case. But his name was mentioned several times during recent testimony at the trial of an alleged getaway driver in two slayings. At closing arguments Monday, Assistant US Attorney Sean Haran reminded jurors the "evidence was that Mike Tyson put up $50,000 (€31,700) to kill" two men. Defense attorney Richard Levitt cautioned that the witness who described the Tyson murder-for-hire plot is "unquestionably a liar."