By Cameron Houston and Peter Ryan
The author of an incendiary report into alleged racism at Hawthorn Football Club has been charged with more than 70 fraud offences over allegations he siphoned hundreds of thousands of dollars from Murray Valley Aboriginal Co-operative.
Phil Egan, who played 125 games for Richmond between 1982 and 1990, was charged with 32 counts of obtaining financial advantage by deception, and 33 counts of using false documents by detectives from the Financial Crime Squad.
Former Richmond footballer Phil Egan was the author of Hawthorn’s review into cultural safety.Credit: The Age
The 60-year-old faces a further eight counts of receiving secret commissions.
A Victoria Police spokeswoman confirmed the charges relate to alleged fraud matters between 2010 and 2015.
Egan declined to comment when contacted by The Age on Thursday, other than to say: “Something is up because I have had a missed phone call from my solicitor.”
He had told the ABC in February that the police investigation was baseless and insisted he would be cleared of any wrongdoing.
“This investigation, I guess, is not an opinion-based one,” he said. “It is a fact documented. It’s about documents. It’s about truth, and I’m 100 per cent confident that my documents will hold up against these inquiries,” Egan said in February.
He is due to face the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on August 11.
More to come
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