Parramatta reportedly pays $500,000 to settle case regarding salary cap scandal
Long gone are the days of Jarryd Hayne and Anthony Watmough donning Eels colours but the club is still dealing with the fallout from payments made to the former Origin players.
Parramatta is reportedly set to pay $500,000 to settle a Supreme Court case that would have revealed details of the club’s salary cap breach, regarding money paid to Hayne and Watmough.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports, liquidators for Blackcitrus filed a lawsuit seeking $1,177,601 for creditors.
Hayne playing for the Eels in 2013. Getty
Parramatta reportedly paid the sum to avoid their breaches being made public, with details of payments made to Hayne and Watmough being exposed through a subsidiary company of Blackcitrus.
The company was one of the firms caught up in the Eels’ 2016 salary cap scandal and reportedly negotiated an agreement with former CEO Scott Seward. It’s understood claimed invoices did not show the reflected value for services.
“The plaintiff was at all material times aware that the HOA was a sham and that the true purpose of the arrangement was to provide payments to player Anthony Watmough,” the defence said.
Anthony Watmough playing for NSW. AAP
“In avoidance of the NRL Salary Cap Rules; and … that the HOA was at all times void and of no legal effect by reason of its illegal nature and/or as against public policy.”
Following the payment the club’s salary cap saga is now over.
The Eels were fined $1 million, stripped of their 2016 Auckland Nines title, docked 12 competition points and forced to allow players to depart the club.
It came after they were discovered to have been systematically rorting the salary cap.
