NRL player agents including Jarryd Hayne's targeted in police raids by fraud squad
Kate McClymont
Published: October 20, 2016 - 10:18AM
The offices of four prominent player managers are being raided by police from the NSW fraud squad in a dramatic development in the Parramatta Eels salary cap scandal.
Shortly after 9.30am police with search warrants arrived at the Woollahra home of Jarryd Hayne's agent Wayne Beavis, the Leichhardt office of Sam Ayoub and the Pitt Street offices of George Mimis and Paul Sutton.
They entered Beavis' property, but it's understood Mr Ayoub was not at the premises.
The raids are part of on-going investigation into the embattled rugby league club's systemic rorting of the salary cap by paying players under the table.
This year the Parramatta Eels' board was sacked, the club was stripped of 12 competition points and fined $1 million.
Sacked Eels chairman Steve Sharp complained that in May 2013, when he replaced controversial former chairman Roy Spagnolo, he was immediately contacted by Beavis, Mimis, Ayoub and other agents demanding they honour third -party deals which had been struck by the previous regime.
But according to Mr Sharp, there were no formal records of these deals.
In his sworn testimony to the NRL integrity unit, Mr Sharp said he told the agents: "We won't honour anything that we don't know anything about." He said the agents threatened to take their players from the club.
"And I said, 'Well, you can take your players out of the club, take your wooden spoon with you and - and piss off '. "
As the NRL investigation continued they found that the Eels had buckled.
Former Eels chief executive Scott Seward told the NRL that several of Beavis' clients were the beneficiaries of a series of off-the-books payments. Agents' fees range from 4 to 7 per cent of their players' earnings.
Mr Seward claimed the Eels paid Mr Beavis directly for securing the services of Lee Mossop from the English Super League.
Mossop was not a success and after playing only a handful of games the Eels told the NRL they had paid $35,000 to secure his release so Mossop could return to England.
However, documents obtained by Fairfax Media reveal that the actual amount negotiated by Mr Seward and Mr Beavis was $85,000.
"A further $50k will be paid direct to Lee's UK bank account I understand to wrap the matter up," Mr Beavis wrote in one email to Mr Seward. Another of Mr Beavis's clients is star player Jarryd Hayne, who continued to receive unregistered third-party payments, even though he had left the Eels to play American football with the San Francisco 49ers.
One such payment for $26,000 went into a company controlled by former Eels boss Roy Spagnolo while another payment for $26,000 was made to Mr Beavis, in April last year.
Another of Mr Beavis's clients, Darcy Lussick, purchased a heavily discounted apartment in Top Ryde from the family of disgraced former Labor minister Eddie Obeid.
The integrity unit was told that a napkin in a coffee shop was used by Sam Ayoub to negotiate a third-party deal for his player Nathan Peats.
Anomalies with the contractual negotiations between Mr Mimis and Parramatta's then star recruit Kieran Foran are also understood to be of interest to police.
Player managers have to sign a "Total Remuneration Declaration" with the NRL about the player's total remuneration, including third-party agreements.
Any third-party agreement has to be done with the written approval of the NRL's salary cap auditor.
Crucially, the declaration to the NRL is covered by the provisions of the NSW Oaths act, which can make it a criminal offence if such declarations are found to be knowingly false.