King Indicted by Grand Jury : Boxing: Controversial promoter allegedly filed a false insurance claim.

Don King, the electric-haired promoter whose name is synonymous with boxing controversy, was indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday in New York for allegedly filing a false insurance claim involving a 1991 bout that was canceled because of injury.

The nine-count indictment, which could result in maximum five-year sentences and fines on each of the counts, alleges that, after Julio Cesar Chavez cut his nose before he could fight Harold Brazier, King lied to Lloyd’s of London about his contract with Chavez in order to collect $350,000 from the London-based insurance carrier.

King, who has promoted former heavyweight champions Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson among a long list of fighters, is scheduled to be arraigned July 21.

“I am completely innocent,” King said in a written statement released Thursday afternoon. “I have done nothing to warrant this action. . . . I will be cleared.”

Michael Marley, a spokesman for Don King Productions, said that the indictments will not disturb the company’s pending promotions--among them a Sept. 17 card at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas featuring Chavez against Meldrick Taylor.

“Don King’s been through a lot of legal battles and so far his record is perfect,” Marley said.

Reaction in the boxing community--among King’s enemies, friends and the rare neutral party--was mixed.

There have been reports for almost all of the grand jury’s two-year investigation that King would be brought up on a far broader range of charges than the comparatively narrow indictment issued.

“He has been a cancer on the sport of boxing and a lot of his activities have brought the sport to a position of disrepute,” said Bob Arum, one of King’s bitterest rivals. “The sport of boxing would be infinitely better without him.

“But this guy seems to have more lives than a cat.”

King has been investigated by at least two other grand juries and one FBI sting operation. In 1985, he was acquitted in federal court of tax evasion.

In 1954, before he became involved in boxing, King killed a man who was robbing a numbers house operated by King in Cleveland, but it was ruled self-defense. In 1967, King was convicted in Cleveland of beating to death Sam Garrett, a man who owed him money, and he served four years in prison. He was pardoned in 1983 by then-Ohio Gov. James A. Rhodes.

“I think his day of comeuppance, finally, has come,” said manager Bill Cayton, who sued King after Tyson left Cayton to join King’s stable.

Joe Sayatovich disagreed.

“They’ve been investigating him for two years, spent all that money and time, and this is what they come up with?” said the San Diego-based manager who whose top fighter, World Boxing Council junior-middleweight champion Terry Norris, is promoted by King.

“This tells me someone is out to get him. Don King has been bulletproof from the time we’ve started doing business with him. He has always done for us what he has promised. So no, I’m not worried.”

The MGM Grand, which has staged most of King’s biggest shows in the last year, said in a written statement that it would “take our direction” from the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

Marc Ratner, executive director of the Nevada commission, said there will be no hasty decisions.

“We’ve had no problems whatsoever with him in this state, financially or otherwise,” Ratner said. “He’s been indicted, not convicted, and until there is a court disposition, he is innocent until proven guilty.”