Newcastle businesswoman Tracy McKelligott has denied being involved in an alleged scheme to hide illicit payments from Parramatta to star player Anthony Watmough.
Transcripts published on Monday of an Eels board meeting in June last year detail directors discussing an alleged arrangement between former chief executive Scott Seward and McKelligott to circumvent the salary cap via inflated invoices from McKelligott.
Payments from Parramatta worth $50,000 a year would go to Watmough for four years via PJ Promotions, a company owned by McKelligott's father that was shut down in August.
In the meeting, one board member, Tanya Gadiel, describes the arrangement as "fraud".
McKelligott was contracted as a brand marketing manager by the Eels, through her firm Eclipse Events and PR Group, from 2013 until July last year.
In the transcripts, chief executive John Boulous, football manager Daniel Anderson and board members Gadiel, Andrew Cordwell, Steve Sharp, Tom Issa and Peter Serrao discuss the alleged arrangement involving McKelligott and PJ Promotions. Sharp suggests the payments for Watmough were to be included as part of an inflated $200,000 annual fee McKelligott charged to the club for her services.
McKelligott told Fairfax Media on Tuesday that she had never inflated invoices to accommodate secret club payments.
"I have never charged anything other than my monthly retainer to those guys, even when I worked well over those hours within that retainer," she said.
Boulous says at one point in the meeting that McKelligott is "in the office one to two days a week, and she's on call the rest of the time based in Newcastle".
"The lies that have been coming out of those minutes are just mind-blowing," McKelligott said. "How they can say they didn't know what I did ... I was working more than one to two days. Everybody knows ... I was working three and four days a week down there. I was busting my guts for that place."
She said she felt like a scapegoat in the Eels' salary-cap scandal. "It's really hurtful. I've worked for 20 years to have my reputation."
