Senate hearing - Wednesday

[JSJ]

I don't remember them saying that, my recollection was that they said they had not been advised of the deal, then they said they were waiting to hear of the details of the deal. All obviously lies since their lawyer (Hawkins of the ARU) had arranged for the Deed of Amendment so that the Put option could be exercised by Cox within a short time frame (before the Rebels became insolvent - imo)

Documents lodged with ASIC by ISM on Friday reveal that Andrew Cox has relinquished control of the Melbourne Rebels, a development that blindsided the ARU.

The documents show ISM has transferred its shares for $1 to the Victorian Rugby Union, the same price he bought the franchise for in 2015, effectively giving the union a controlling stake in the franchise.

While it is believed the ARU would have had to approve a sale, Cox, Imperium Sports Management and the VRU appear to have found a loophole in that.

The ARU issued a statement on Friday night, confirming it had no knowledge of the documents or the decision until after the fact.

"The Australian Rugby Union (ARU) has tonight received confirmation from a third party that ownership of the Melbourne Rebels had transferred from Imperium Group to the Victorian Rugby Union (VRU)," it read.

"The Melbourne Rebels have an obligation under their Participation Deed to inform ARU of any change of ownership. To date, ARU has received no such communication from the Melbourne Rebels despite recent attempts to confirm their position.

"ARU is urgently seeking to confirm the terms on which this transfer occurred."


https://www.rugby.com.au/news/2017/0...ebels-vru-sale

[mothy]

Hey if anyone can get in contact with Jodi Hodgson, could she email Oliver Peterson from 6PR he would like to discuss the issue with her.

His email is oliver.peterson@macquariemedia.com.au

[Bakkies]

Bakkies, I admire your stamina...I don't know how you can do it! I really can't be bothered with The Roar comments any more. I like some of their articles, but the comments are too much!

It's too easy got him deflecting and not responding to his childish comeback. It's like going fishing for Carp and coming away with a Barra.

[Bakkies]

Hey if anyone can get in contact with Jodi Hodgson, could she email Oliver Peterson from 6PR he would like to discuss the issue with her.

His email is oliver.peterson@macquariemedia.com.au

I am sure Joe Barker has her details.

In all seriousness throw her a line on FB or Matt Hodgson's Twitter page by private message.

[Tonkar]

Joe Barker has been trolling this group now as he named me on a FB page by my log in here.... We need to cut him

[Bakkies]

Joe Barker has been trolling this group now as he named me on a FB page by my log in here.... We need to cut him

Saw that.

Wasn't impressed with Scott Daruda's shill style post which was rightly called out on.

[Patster]

"no knowledge of the documents or the decision until after the fact."
- Should have been prefaced with, "Once upon a time..."
Click on the link - "404 Page Not Found"
RA now censoring news that could be considered unfavorable.
#FURA

[travelling_gerry]

https://www.rugby.com.au/news/2017/0...ebels-vru-sale

Still there...

[Bakkies]

https://www.rugby.com.au/news/2017/0...ebels-vru-sale

Still there...

I wouldn't bother reading it again. The comments will make you blow a fuse.

[JSJ]

I wouldn't bother reading it again. The comments will make you blow a fuse.

Bakkies or anybody else, I am trying to find the transcript of Bill Pulver's opening statement and his answers to questions at the senate inquiry. In particular if he answered any questions about the Rebels licence transfer in a false or misleading manner at the Senate Inquiry. If you find anything please post it and the link.

[Bakkies]

http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A"committees%2Fcommsen%2F735 98356-3773-4e76-b3e8-1bb8240ce745%2F0000"

[Bakkies]

It didn't take long for Bumchin Bill to start lying

Senator REYNOLDS: Could you explain? Having a look at annual reports, to me they clearly show that. How much in total did you provide in loans to the Melbourne Rebels?

Mr Pulver : We did not provide any loans to the Melbourne Rebels. The exact terms of the financial relationship with Imperium Sports Management are confidential, but I'm happy to tell you that we did provide a relationship which provided incremental funding for them. They were not loans. In the case of the Western Force, we also provide incremental funding of $500,000 every year to the Western Force, relative to other teams.

So Bill loaning the Rabble over 8 million (that's only one of the loans that I am quoting) is incremental funding then I was born yesterday.

[sittingbison]

It's only a loan if it's expected to be paid back (hopefully with interest), if its not "forgiven", or not written off as a bad debt....so he was actually telling the "truth" to Brigadier Reynolds - there were no "loans".

Likewise the Force were not given a loan, they had to sell something for money, therefore a loan couldn't be extinguished by paying the money back early if they smelt a RatsArse. Very crafty on the part of the RatsArse.

She wanted to know the truth...Willy thought she couldn't handle the truth

[UAUdiver1959]

From yesterdays leaked email

“Otherwise, there is the Deed of Release between the Rebels, AC (Cox), PS (Peter Sidwell a member of Cox’s consortium) and the other unitholders which it looks like you have in hand.”

So the then ARU knew about the Unit Holders? This is a great admission. Give away $6m with no strings attached and then know who the Imperium Unit Holders are who are directly benefiting from the cash?

Was the $6m just a facilitating fee to get some key VRU members to petition the Victorian government to pre buy Bledisloe and Lions tour matches for $20m?

And then the ARU gets some of the money back from the Rabble via 'the service provided to the ARU'? or am I drawing too long of a bow?

The smell is about right!!

[Pj,Rj,Hj]

It didn't take long for Bumchin Bill to start lying

Senator REYNOLDS: Could you explain? Having a look at annual reports, to me they clearly show that. How much in total did you provide in loans to the Melbourne Rebels?

Mr Pulver : We did not provide any loans to the Melbourne Rebels. The exact terms of the financial relationship with Imperium Sports Management are confidential, but I'm happy to tell you that we did provide a relationship which provided incremental funding for them. They were not loans. In the case of the Western Force, we also provide incremental funding of $500,000 every year to the Western Force, relative to other teams.

So Bill loaning the Rabble over 8 million (that's only one of the loans that I am quoting) is incremental funding then I was born yesterday.

Now I'm probably giving too much attention to a minor issue here but this did prick my ears when Bill said this back in September. I thought it very odd at the time that he'd stress the confidentiality of the ARU's financial relationship with the Rebels and refused to give any figures, yet he was quite happy to state specific figures (real or not) in relation to the Force. Only latter in the inquiry he hid behind confidentiality with the WARU and WA Gov in an act of what-aboutism, while the Senators stated that the WA parties have no problem revealing the information.
So to me it seemed as he'd avoid saying anything about the Rebels but was more than happy to blurt out about the Force on the very same issues, so much for his high ethical regard for confidentiality.