The offices of four NRL player agents have been raided and documents have been seized by NSW police as part of ongoing investigations into possible fraud by the Parramatta Eels.
Photo: PhotoSport
Businesses in Sydney's CBD, Woollahra and Leichhardt were raided by Strike Force Rhodium, set up to look into alleged misappropriation of Eels finances.
Allegations emerged earlier this year that third party sponsors were being overcharged on invoices in order to pay Parramatta players outside the NRL salary cap.
"The allegations under investigation relate to finance being fraudulently derived by the NRL club through false or inflated invoices to suppliers paid by the Leagues Club," NSW police said in a statement.
The addresses involved four managers - Wayne Beavis in Woollahra; the Leichhardt office of Sam Ayoub; and the Pitt Street offices of George Mimis and Paul Sutton, according to reports.
Officers from the NSW Fraud and Cybercrime Squad arrived at the properties with search warrants this morning.
"Detectives are still in the process of identifying and gathering relevant information," said police in a statement
"A number of people have been spoken to, but no one has been arrested.
"Strike Force detectives executed three search warrants at businesses in Sydney CBD, Leichhardt, and Woollahra today, and seized a number of documents, which they believe are relevant to the investigation."
Beavis released a statement this afternoon saying he would help police in their investigation.
"Wayne Beavis has and continues to co-operate with the Police and provided all relevant assistance requested as part of the investigation," he said.
Comment was also being sought from Ayoub, Mimis and Sutton.
A spokesman for the NRL said its integrity unit's review of player agents over the Eels cap issue was well advanced and a report was expected to be provided to the player agents committee soon.
The Eels were rocked by the cap scandal early in the 2016 season and ultimately had 12 competition points stripped and and copped a $1 million fine for systemic cheating of the NRL salary cap over a period of three years.
The scandal resulted in five Eels officials being axed and deregistered - chairman Steve Sharp, his deputy Tom Issa, director Peter Serrao, CEO John Boulous and football general manager Daniel Anderson.
Comment was being sought from the Parramatta club.
The developments come one day after new Eels chairman Max Donnelly proposed a raft of extraordinary governance changes to members in a bid to start the 2017 on a clean slate.
Recently-appointed CEO Bernie Gurr is set to begin in his role on Monday.
-AAP
