Manny Pacquiao has launched a new legal counterattack in Los Angeles Superior Court, filing a malicious-prosecution lawsuit that targets the waiter who sued him nearly ten years ago and the law firms that took that case to court. The complaint names Gabriel Rueda and law firms including Khan Law Office, Withers Bergman, and Pierce Bainbridge Beck Price & Hecht, and seeks both compensatory and punitive damages for what Pacquiao’s lawyers say are years of reputational damage and millions of dollars in legal fees.
The new filing grows out of a 2016 lawsuit brought by Gabriel Rueda, who was working as a server at Craig’s in West Hollywood when he claimed he helped arrange a meeting that played a role in setting up the 2015 Mayweather-Pacquiao bout and said he was owed a finder’s fee. As reported by the Los Angeles Times, Rueda initially sought millions of dollars and at one point asked for as much as $42 million, sparking years of litigation in Los Angeles courts. Pacquiao’s new complaint calls that earlier case baseless and alleges the claims were pushed to squeeze out a settlement.
Pacquiao’s attorneys point to a draft letter from May 2015, which they say was recovered in 2023 through court-ordered forensic retrieval of Rueda’s iCloud account, as undercutting the core story. In that letter, Rueda wrote that he “asked for nothing in return.” According to BoxingInsider, the complaint also says Rueda received a ticket to the fight, a hotel room and about $10,000 for...
Manny Pacquiao has launched a new legal counterattack in Los Angeles Superior Court, filing a malicious-prosecution lawsuit that targets the waiter who sued him nearly ten years ago and the law fi...