Paul Kimmage has admitted he is "very disappointed" with the news that money from his defence fund appears to have gone missing, while also fearing the recommencement of legal action against him now that he has no financial means with which to fight a case.

Legal action has been taken in the U.S. between co-founders of the cycling website which set up the fund.

The defence fund was set up last year to allow donors to financially aid the journalist, who was facing heavy legal bills due to legal action taken against him by former UCI president Hein Verbruggen and current UCI chief Pat McQuaid.

Kimmage has said he is “very disappointed” with the news that there are now major question marks over his legal defence fund.

The fund was set up by Cyclismas.com and nyvelocity.com, to aid Kimmage in funding a legal defence. The fund had amassed over $100,000 from over 3,000 donors across the world, however, yesterday, Cycling News and Cycling Weekly reported that money from the fund is now missing.

Cyclismas editor and co-founder Lesli Cohen told Kimmage on Saturday that Aaron Brown - co-founder of Cyclismas.com and the person with, Cohen claims, sole access to the defence funds – had removed the money and placed into a personal account.

Kimmage told The Irish Times: “Lesli contacted me and told me she had concerns about the money, where it was and what it was used for.

“I contacted Aaron straight away about this,” he added.

“I asked him to provide me with a statement detailing the payments that had been made from the defence fund. He refused to give me a proper statement, other than to say that there was $64,000 in it.

“I then asked him to transfer the $64,000 to a neutral account and he has refused to do that.”

Kimmage is now concerned of the possibility of McQuaid and Verbruggen recommencing legal action, as he has no access to defence funds.

“The bottom line is that I have had to call my lawyer Cedric and tell him to stop. That is how it affects me. It could be that the money is still there. If so, that is great, but what if it is not? I am still going to have to pay the bills at the end of the day. So I told him to stop.”

The UCI dropped their legal case against Kimmage several months ago, following the conclusion of the Lance Armstrong case, although it remains possible it will be re-enacted.
Cohen has filed legal action against Brown. Cohen told Cycling Weekly:

"The court proceeding is to supervise the settling of accounts which Mr. Brown has, to date, refused to provide the details of to either myself or Paul Kimmage - with respect to both the Paul Kimmage Defense Fund and the business accounts for Cyclismas.com and its related ventures.

"At no time did either Paul Kimmage or myself ever have control or access to the accounts that held the Paul Kimmage Defense Fund.

"Aaron Brown maintained sole control of that account, and it was Aaron who disbursed the payments to Paul to pay his attorney's fees in December.

"On Saturday, Paul Kimmage asked Aaron Brown for detailed statements showing the existence of the fund and how much was remaining in the fund. He was not given satisfactory answers by Aaron. Paul then asked his attorney to request that Aaron either provide access to the Kimmage Defense Fund or transfer the remaining funds into an account under the attorney's care and control. Aaron refused.

"We are now asking the court to compel Aaron to provide a full accounting of all the funds mentioned above and rectify the situation."

Borwn responded to Cyclingnews.co.uk, saying:

"We didn't realise that there would be an IRS 1099 form that meant there was a tax liability for what was in the funds. In January and February Lesli had said she couldn't deal with the liability, said I would take the liability and I would take on the responsibility and initiated that change with PayPal as I was willing to take the risk.

"Then people wanted to make it into an attack fund. Its original purpose was a defence fund. It was to defend Paul against the UCI action. It was not for him to open action against the UCI. When that lawsuit was suspended the agreement was that we would not have any more action and Paul's legal bills were paid. As it stands now the legal action is still suspended and if Paul incurs any more legal bills in defence then the fund will pay it. Once the case is over the funds should be dispensed to the donors.

"It's a big mess and I'm the guy who assumed liability on this."