How I was snared by a conman, and why I couldn’t get out

Pro boxer Paul Peers lost money, friends and credibility to serial fraudster Charles Russo

I am a fighter, and like all fighters, I have pride and ambition. I am always looking for opportunities to further my career.

In May 2020, I was preparing for such an opportunity – a fight against former world champion Scott Harrison.

Not only was it a big fight against a legend of the sport, it also came as the UK was deep into lockdown and chances to get in the ring were few and far between, especially for boxers who were not signed to a major promoter with TV money behind them.

As the pandemic raged, a shark came circling

It was thanks to the British and Irish Boxing Authority (BIBA) and its president, Gianluca Di Caro (known as Rio), that I was given this opportunity not only to further my career but also make some money. The match, on July 18 in Aberdeen, Scotland, was to be broadcast on Fite.tv. It was to be conducted behind closed doors, which meant no ticket sales and therefore very little income for its organisers, but it was made possible thanks to the promise of some significant sponsorship.

This sponsorship was supposed to come thanks to the big-name business connections of an American man called Charles Russo, who said he had arranged for some $55,000 worth. On top of this, he appeared to making great strides in boxing, had the attention of some major players and was organising his own events, some of which looked spectacular and groundbreaking.

Rio put me in touch with Russo and we hit it off immediately. He was as charismatic as he was convincing. We would talk daily and developed a bond.

The fight with Harrison didn’t go the way I wanted, but Russo was promising to get me fights in the US, some brilliant exposure and even a role in his organisation, the Boxers and Mixed Martial Arts Fighters Union (BMMAFU).

History in the making, or Bullshit At Sea?

Meanwhile, Russo and BIBA had hit a snag. The sponsorship money had not come through, leaving Rio to pay for the broadcast. There were excuses and explanations and counter-claims, but I didn’t get involved. I put my faith in Russo because he appeared to be working hard and making moves. That’s not to say Rio wasn’t too, but Russo made much more of a show of what he was doing. Rio’s style is to work quietly in the background; Russo’s is to shout it out to the world.

One thing he was shouting about was Boxing At Sea, one of his gala events and said to be the first of its kind – a boxing show on board a cruise ship, running from Miami to the Bahamas. It sounded amazing, so when I was offered a match on it, I jumped at the chance.

I was then offered matches for three boxers I managed, and I was over the moon to be able to secure them an opportunity like this.

Around the same time, Russo brought me into his inner circle, with a plum position on his BMMAFU board. I was made Vice President – Europe. This wasn’t a paid role, but the benefits in terms of getting matches for myself and my boxers, the exposure that would come with landmark events such as Boxing At Sea, and just generally moving in a positive direction with all the things Russo promised, appeared obvious.

I was added to two Facebook Messenger groups; one involving all the boxers, managers and other people involved in the cruise, and another for BMMAFU board members. The cruise group was full of enthusiasm and the board group involved discussions and votes on big decisions. We all talked every day, including Skype calls and video meetings. I felt like I was part of something big; Russo had me like a fish on a hook.

With the match card coming together, it was time to start taking bookings. We were still right in the middle of the pandemic and cruises were not operating, but we were working on the assumption everything would be OK by the advertised May 2021 sailing. Even so, places were not yet being released to the public, though Russo said boxers, their teams and supporters could reserve their cabins now – and what a deal he had lined up.

For just £550 (almost $700), you’d not only get a cabin on the cruise and tickets to the fights, but this would include round-trip flights from London to Miami as well. Russo said this incredible price was thanks to his relationship with an array of big-name sponsors.

Deposits are paid, but alarm bells start to ring

Straight away I was on it, asking my friends and family as well as sponsors to get involved. It was an easy sell and the money started coming in almost immediately. Those who didn’t commit straight away, I chased up because I wanted to secure the deposits before prices went up.

Once I was ready to send the first four deposits, I told Russo (pictured), expecting to be given the bank details of the cruise operator, or one of his businesses, or at least his own account. But no, he told me to send the money to the PayPal account of an individual called Theresa Gersbeck.

I thought this was strange but Russo said this was his wife, and she took care of finances. I still believed in him, so I sent the money. I later attempted to do the same with a second lot of bookings – this time for six deposits – but there was a problem with the PayPal account.

Russo said he’d had an argument with somebody and they’d reported the PayPal account. This person was an enemy telling lies, he said, and Russo promised the account would be back up and running once he’d proved this, but in the meantime asked me to send the money via Western Union.

This set off alarm bells, as my partner Michelle pointed out scammers often use Western Union. We gave it some thought but concluded it can’t be a scam, because Russo had been introduced to us by Rio, who as far as we were concerned was a man of integrity, and they had been working together.

At this point it should be mentioned Rio had by now cut ties with Russo and quit BMMAFU, as the sponsorship money never came through and Russo had started bad-mouthing Rio. A lot of BIBA figures sided with Rio and stopped dealing with Russo.

To be on the safe side, I asked Russo for receipts for everything I’d sent, and he complied. I obtained receipts on BMMAFU letterheads confirming the bookings and forwarded these to everyone who’d paid.

As well as the Rio issue, by now I’d been hearing some rumours that Boxing At Sea was dodgy, but Russo had done everything I’d asked, answered all my questions and provided receipts which I could use as proof if there were any doubters. It couldn’t be a scam, I thought.

I’d sent over a few thousand pounds by now and still had people interested, so Russo said he wanted me to take on a bigger role in BMMAFU. He wanted me to handle all bookings coming from the UK. Having me, as a known pro boxer and manager, handle this would prove everything was legit, he said, since some people were casting accusations against him. But once my loyalty to Russo was noticed, these same people started becoming suspicious of me, too.

Russo starts to mess with people, but it’s me in the firing line

With hindsight, it is obvious what he was playing at, but at the time I loved being part of something I thought was going to be huge. I continued taking bookings and then sponsors started showing interest, and they came to me too.

I took £1,000 from one boxer’s sponsor but then some doubt started pecking away at me. This company was sponsoring the individual boxer, not the wider event, so why was Russo asking for the money to be sent to him rather than the boxer?

Now the seeds of doubt had been planted, I started noticing things. He bragged about being a millionaire, yet always seemed to be moving in and out of basic hotels. People were coming and going from the Messenger groups and falling out with Russo all the time. He always had some dirt on them and as soon as they left he would have some story about them wanting money or trying to take advantage of someone.

And then the cruise’s boxing card started to fall apart. One big name pulled out and publicly voiced his suspicions. A manager and two of his boxers also withdrew, but they had already paid deposits. The manager asked for refunds, and Russo gave him the runaround. He said refund requests had to filed by filling in a form (which he had drawn up himself) and warned deposits might not be returned “without a reasonable explanation” for requesting them. The timeframe for the resolution process went from 90 days to six months and eventually 24 months.

I wasn’t happy hearing this because, while this manager and his boxers had paid their own deposits, I had several people pay through me, and if it came to any of them asking for refunds, it would be me in the firing line if Russo messed them about. My reputation was already taking a hit and some people were even beginning to think I might be part of a scam.

The case builds, and another identity emerges

My feelings were slowly but surely changing. I’d gone from being enchanted by Russo and his vision to starting to doubt everything he said. At the same time, I couldn’t just leave, because I had so much money – including other people’s money – hanging in the balance. If I challenged him, I was scared I’d lose it all. I had to hang in there and try to work out a resolution. This meant continuing to act as though I was one of Russo’s biggest supporters, even though doing so made me look like an idiot – or worse, a con artist.

The case against Russo continued to build. A “wanted” poster was being circulated of his wife (if she really is his wife), Theresa Gersbeck, who was wanted in Pennsylvania for identity theft and skipping trial. There was a newspaper story which told of a man called Peter McMahon ripping off musicians over a fake concert, with a picture of somebody looking very much like Russo. Further documents showed McMahon had prior convictions and was still wanted for others he had not been tried for. If McMahon and Russo were the same person, it would explain why Russo couldn’t take any payments in either name.

Russo was aware of these stories and documents but of course denounced them as ploys by his opponents. I decided to dig deeper myself and see if I could find my own evidence. The Messenger groups continued to be a revolving door with people coming and going, and Russo started holding Facebook Live sessions about once a week, to update viewers on BMMAFU plans and events, and to blast his various opponents. He would sometimes bring his wife and granddaughter into the videos, or be seen walking around his neighbourhood. I was thinking to myself these were not the actions of a wanted man – or if they were, there was some set of balls on the guy.

With Bullshit Street Fair, he sucked me in again

With Boxing At Sea in disarray, Russo turned his attentions to another show he was promising to put on. Boxing Street Fair was going to be an open-air, two-day event in Jensen Beach, Florida with several big-name boxers involved as well as music performances. I was given a match, against a young prospect called Michael Williams Jr. Critics continued to say Russo was fake, but I spoke with Williams and his dad, Michael Sr, and they confirmed they had taken the fight.

I was sucked in again. I’d put the cruise controversy to one side and just wanted to fight. Russo was as convincing as ever, had brought in recognisable names and companies, and had a chance to redeem himself in my eyes. I sent Russo yet more money, this time for flights to Florida for myself, my partner and my little girl.

But it didn’t happen. Williams Sr pulled his son out of our match when the supposed multi-millionaire Russo couldn’t stump up a small amount of cash. Another three opponents were lined up for me, and they all fell through. Several other boxers from other matches pulled out too. I noticed I’d seen this happen a few times now over the months, not just with the cruise and Boxing Street Fair – Russo was taking money off people to plan for shows and not one of them ever took place. It was always someone else’s fault.

I’m almost two years into this thing and I’ve lost tens of thousands of pounds. I’ve lost friends. My personal reputation has been damaged, as has that of my business. My boxing career has stagnated. I’ve had sponsors drop off. All for sticking by Charles Russo.

The truth emerges, once and for all

For more than a year now, I’ve been hanging in there not because I’ve been supporting Russo, but because I’ve been trying to catch him out. I risked speaking to a few people – confidentially, not wanting to blow my cover. I reached out to the people Russo had fallen out with. One of them was Stephen Covill of Boxing World TV, who had been brought in to handle media for BMMAFU but had ended up asking Russo some difficult questions in the Messenger group. Russo did not take kindly to this, removed him from the board and accused him of being greedy – just like everyone else.

Steven put me in touch with some more people who were working to build a case against Russo and who would keep my secret, allowing me to speak freely among them and share any info that might help them. The group included some respected names in the sport and everything started to unfold quite clearly. I felt so stupid and started to hate myself for allowing this man to take so much of my time and money.

One of these new contacts was Lisa McClellan, sister of Gerald McClellan who was injured in a boxing match with Nigel Benn. She had history with Russo going back even before me, when he tried to take advantage of Gerald’s situation. Lisa (pictured above with Gerald) has been committed to stopping Russo ever since.

Another was Oliver Fennell, a journalist for Boxing News magazine. He was working on an investigative feature seeking to expose Russo and he’d built a cast-iron case against him, including the link from McMahon to Russo and how he’s run similar rackets for years in other industries. This was published in April 2021 and can viewed here: https://www.boxingnewsonline.net/get-this-man-out-of-boxing-now/

Along with everything else I had seen for myself over the months, this was the final straw. Lisa has an impeccable reputation in the sport, and Boxing News as a major media outlet would not publish a story like that unless it was legally watertight. Russo, typically, has called them all liars and says he’s suing Lisa, Oliver and Boxing News, but this, just like everything else, simply isn’t happening.

Help us stop this man and prevent others from falling victim

So, that is the story of how I was lured in by the conman Charles Russo, why I appeared to stand by him for so long, and why I am finally going public. I am no longer associated with Russo or BMMAFU, and in fact I haven’t been on their side for months – it’s just I haven’t been able to say so.

I know I’ve lost that money forever but I hope I can now start to rebuild the friendships and reputation I have lost as a result of this saga. I sincerely apologise to anyone who’s been affected by my misguided alliance with Russo and I will be glad to help these people or anybody else who’s fallen foul of him. I don’t know what it will take to stop him, but we will not stop in our efforts to do so. At least please help spread the word and stop him hurting anyone else.

• If you have been affected by Charles Russo, or if you can help put a stop to him, please contact Paul, Lisa, Oliver or Front Page Fight Sports.
• Neither Front Page Fight Sports nor Paul Peers have taken, paid, offered or asked for any money for the writing or publishing of this story.