Former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov may be in trouble with Russian tax authorities over financial ‘irregularities’ found in businesses the Dagestani fighter owned.
Khabib Nurmagomedov may be in trouble with tax authorities in his home country, according to unconfirmed reports coming out of Russia.
Online news outlet Mash.ru was the first to make the allegations, which have now been picked up by other major Russian sites including state-controlled outlet RT. They all tell the same story: that Khabib is being investigated for underpaying his business taxes by 300 million rubles ($330 million US dollars).
The investigation from the Federal Tax Service (Russia’s version of the IRS) has reportedly been going on for a while, and was kicked off after Nurmagomedov stepped away from the MMA world in 2023 and divested himself from a number of businesses. RT claims preliminary examinations of these businesses “uncovered irregularities in documents,” leading to a full-fledged audit.
Now the government has allegedly frozen several business bank accounts related to Khabib’s businesses including the Eagle FC promotion and his charity fund.
An interesting note from the initial Mash.ru report indicates that Russian authorities were upset that money which should have gone to taxes were instead diverted into business ventures outside of the country like the United Arab Emirates and Turkey.
This is a developing story and has not been confirmed. But there’s more and more smoke on this one, with major Russian outlets now reporting on the situation. If the situation is verified, is this a simple situation where Khabib can just pay the amount owed? Or are we about to see punitive penalty interest applied, or even a Wesley Snipes situation develop?
We’ll keep you in the know as this story develops.