A Zimbabwean businessman and pastor has brought a defamation action against mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor.
Co Meath-based Gerard Chimbganda on Thursday confirmed he had initiated a defamation suit against McGregor, but declined to comment further.
Chimbganda’s lawyers, RDJ LLP, lodged papers initiating the action against McGregor in the High Court on Wednesday, records show.
Chimbganda’s Good People Homecare company was previously at the centre of a controversy over forged Garda vetting certs.
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The Irish Times reported how Good People Homecare supplied forged paperwork to Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, falsely clearing several employees to manage emergency accommodation for children in State care.
Tusla cut ties with the Co Meath company after it discovered criminal background checks of several staff had been doctored. The agency reported the suspected forgeries to the Garda, which opened an investigation.
An employee of the Good People, a young relative of Chimbganda, was, in May last year, convicted of forgery and falsifying Garda vetting documentation, receiving a suspended sentence.
At the time, Chimbganda said the case concerned a “former junior employee, who acted entirely alone,” without the knowledge of management.
McGregor has been involved in several High Court actions of late, most notably when he was sued by Nikita Hand, who claimed he had raped her in December 2018 in a Dublin hotel.
A civil jury found in favour of Hand in that case, awarding her nearly €250,000 in damages.
McGregor unsuccessfully appealed the jury’s finding to the Court of Appeal. The Supreme Court refused to hear a further appeal.
Last May, McGregor reached an out-of-court settlement with a former sparring partner in a dispute over his Proper No. Twelve whiskey brand.
Artem Lobov had claimed McGregor failed to honour a 2017 oral commitment agreeing to Lobov’s ownership of a 5 per cent share in the whiskey brand.
Russian-born Lobov had asserted he was involved in the creation of the brand. McGregor had denied there was an agreement.
