Amir Khan collected $13 million for a title match the month after the blackmail attempt occurred.
Former welterweight boxing champion Amir Khan was the target of a blackmail attempt by a Cleveland (UK) gambling addict needing quick cash.
The blackmailer targeted Mr. Khan and his management team with a sex tape which never existed.
The email is said to have been sent on March 27 of this year. After a two-month investigation, Din was arrested on June 22. The trial began in October.
During the trial, Din’s “severe gambling addiction” was used as a mitigating factor in his crime. It also was mentioned that he cares for his mother.
Hamza Din’s Blackmail Attempt
The “complete stranger” was a man named Hamza Din, who sent an email to Amir Khan which claimed he was going to release the videotape to the media unless Khan “matched the price”. The e-mail was sent to Khan’s management company, claiming that the video showed a scene from a hotel room in Newcastle. The email claimed Khan was having relations with “a girl” and was “100 per cent real”.
The 27-year old British boxer claims to be happily married, so he never took the blackmail attempt seriously. Instead, his management team alerted the authorities. The traced the email, which was under the name “Harry Dean”, to Dryburn Way in Durham, where Hamza Din lived with his father. The man was arrested and charged with blackmail. Harry Dean’s home address was not listed as the same his namesake, but it was easily traced back to Din’s house. Even the alias is an obvious analogue to Hamza Din.
Problem Gambling Mentioned
If convicted, Hamza Din faces possible jail time. Timothy Greenwald, the prosecutor, noted to the court that Amir Khan is married and known for his charity work. Defense attorneys noted that Hamza Din has a gambling problem, along with unspecified “mental issues”.
During the trial, Timothy Greenald said, “The Crown say that while no figure was mentioned, the court may infer that a significant sum was in prospect, bearing in mind the profile Mr Khan has. The intention may have been to recover a fairly significant sum. The material never existed but damage to Mr Khan’s reputation and charity work could have been caused.”
Hamza Din’s Lawyer on Blackmail
Simon Myerson QC was the defense attorney for Mr. Din. He described the blackmail attempt as “spectacularly inept”, and tried to portray Din as harmless.
Myerson QC said to the judge, “It involved a new e-mail account to the same IP address as his home. There was no such video. The incident to which he made the threat did not occur.”
Noting that his client has no previous convictions and describing the attempted crime as completely out of character, Myerson QC said, “This was not a significant attempt to exhort any money. He is truly remorseful. This offence will not be repeated. The factors behind the offending, the gambling and mental health issues, are now in the open.”
Amir Khan’s Statement
In a statement to the court, Amir Khan asked for leniency for his would-be blackmailer, citing Din’s “medical health”. Presumably, he meant the mental health of the accused.
Khan said that he and his family had not been materially affected by the attempt, but he said, “I do not want anyone else to be put in a position that me and my family have been put in.”
About Amir Khan
Amir Khan has a 31-4 record as a prize fighter, with 19 wins by KO. He was ranked by Ring Magazine as the 3rd-best welterweight boxer in April 2016 and the 16th-best pound-for-pound boxer in the world. That was prior to Khan’s battle with middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez in May 2016.
Khan moved up two weight classes to fight the champion, but was ahead on many unofficial scorecards when he was knocked out by Canelo. The fight raised 900,000 pay-per-view buys. Amir Khan was reported to be making over $13 million for the fight, which might have been the reason Hamza Din targeted him.
Besides boxing, Amir Khan is a philanthropist. He is also outspoken about his fellow Muslim community. He has urged Muslems to “clean up our community”, while calling ISIS a bunch of “uneducated monkeys”.
The devout Muslim fighter is known to fast during Ramadan, which has at times held back his career prospects. Amir Khan likely lost out on a chance at a lucrative fight with Floyd Mayweather, who prefers to fight in May and September every year, because a September fight is harder for Khan’s training schedule, due to Ramadan.
