Tyson Scrapes Bottom

INSIDE THE HIGH BRICK WALLS OF THE SUBURBAN Indianapolis prison he will call home for the next six years, Mike Tyson’s sixth week of incarceration brought him some of the bleakest news yet: his once enormous fortune may be depleted, leaving the ex-champ nearly broke.

According to an affidavit released last week by a former accountant to boxing promoter Don King, the King of Unkempt may have fleeced client Tyson of millions of dollars in winnings over a five-year period through overcharges and improper spending. The affidavit, filed in connection with a lawsuit between Tyson and his former manager, Bill Cayton, alleges that King charged Tyson $750,000 for “overhead” at the promoter’s New York office, $100,000 in “consulting fees” for his wife, $2 million for him to acquire promotional rights to other fighters, as well as extravagant sums to cover travel expenses and personal security. The affidavit also says that Tyson attorney Vincent Fuller, who in 1985 successfully defended King against federal tax-evasion charges, recently accused the promoter of exploiting Tyson financially and hiring puppets to represent Tyson in financial matters. King, a wily and meddlesome motormouth who is as beloved in boxing as George Steinbrenner is in baseball, responded that the affidavit is filled with “lies, fabrications and half-truths,” and that every expense was taken with Tyson’s approval.

Tyson earned $60 million in his six years as a professional boxer — including $20 million in 1988 for his 91-sec. title fight against Michael Spinks — but had only as little as $5 million by last year. Last week he was forced to borrow against his own $2 million retirement account to help pay off the $2 million in legal expenses incurred during his rape trial last February, including a six-figure sum for celebrity attorney Alan Dershowitz to conduct his appeal. Former Tyson accountant Mohammed Khan reportedly claims that the boxer has “no liquid assets,” only real estate in New Jersey and Ohio, an exotic car collection and the retirement annuity.

That may have been the worst, but it was not the only embarrassing news Iron Mike faced last week. In a syndicated television interview, Erinn Cosby, 25, daughter of entertainer Bill Cosby, alleged that three years ago she fought off Tyson after he made sexual advances toward her. King called her claim “absolutely not true.”

Behind bars, Tyson had his first serious run-in with prison authorities when he threatened to “whup” a guard after they argued in the commissary. Tyson was given four days’ solitary in the disciplinary unit, where he was forbidden to work at his job in the cellblock recreation area, for which the ex-champ earns 65 cents an hour. He also had his earliest possible release date pushed back 15 days, to April 9, 1995.