PK said:
Chook said:
Given the shonky, under the table, brown paper bag dealings happening out Pemriff way, I compiled a list of suitable candidates for their next CEO?
Chook.
What's your source of these shonky, under the table, brown paper bag dealings Chook?
As a panther fan I am interested to know of your suggestions that my club are apparently doing?
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/06/22/1087844942076.html
Two words that haunt the NRL - salary cap - emerge as the Penrith Panthers boss faces a grilling over player payments, writes Paola Totaro.
Ian Temby, QC, described it as the "streaker's defence" - a method of paying salaries, invoicing for services and receiving accounts which could really only be explained by the statement that "it seemed a good idea at the time".
Indeed, as his Special Commission of Inquiry into Penrith Panthers entered its sixth day yesterday, the so-called streaker's defence became a theme as Mr Temby and his counsel assisting, David Staehli, continued their forensic dissection of the financial affairs of Roger Cowan, the CEO of Penrith Panthers and his family company, Phyro Holding.
Mr Staehli wanted to know why two star Penrith players, Rhys Wesser and Preston Campbell, received $22,000 and $50,000 in salary advances from Phyro and not from the club itself.
And why hadn't the salaries of three senior club employees, including a $30,000 proportion of the six-figure pay packet of the club's gaming manager, John Wilson, been paid by the club instead of Phyro?
Because Mr Wilson's salary would have been higher than his own it "would have looked a little bit silly in the office so I asked him to take some of it through a company", Mr Cowan said.
Mr Staehli: "So, $30,000 annually was passed through Phyro and lumped into one of these Phyro invoices we saw each month ... it might have looked silly? To whom?"
Cowan: "I don't know if it looked silly ... it looked like a good idea at the time."
And could there be any other similar payments made by Phyro to club employees?
Mr Cowan explained that his son, Max, the club's marketing manager, was paid in a similar fashion, as was Stephen Bowers, the club's legal adviser. There was no reason for anyone in the club's pay office to know about the arrangements as he had approved the invoices for payment, he said.
Mr Cowan said that he had given Mr Campbell $22,000 to pay for the deposit or stamp duty on a house while Mr Wesser was given a $50,000 advance on his playing earnings.
He could not recall who had asked him to write the cheques. He said he knew he could recover the money from the club and agreed that the amounts would probably have been recovered in the monthly invoices, sent by Phyro to Panthers.
Shown a cheque payment form with the $22,000 amount on it, Mr Cowan conceded that it was possible, until he found proof to show otherwise, that Phryo might have been repaid twice for Mr Campbell's advance.
And the details of Mr Wesser's payment? "Why wasn't it paid by the club?" Mr Staehli asked.
"I can't remember. I guess because it was convenient," Mr Cowan said.
Mr Temby: "So this $50,000 paid to Phyro was not a means by which an under--table amount was paid to him ... this was not paid in order to muddy the waters insofar as the auditors were concerned ... as far as salary caps were concerned?"
"Not according to my knowledge. No," Mr Cowan said.
Panthers paid Phyro $2.8 million for services, a Herald report revealed last year. After all employment and other costs associated with the services were added up, there still appeared to be an estimated $800,000 which had not been accounted for.
"Every cent I can show you, every cent, I can guarantee that." Mr Cowan said.
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Chook.
