A senior NSW judicial official made "explosive statements" about the former National Rugby League side Parramatta Eels board in a judgment, according to Nick Tabakoff of THE AUSTRALIAN. The official claimed that at least some of the board's directors "connived" in the commissioning of offenses that saw former club CEO Scott Seward sentenced. The judgment came as the NSW Police Force's Fraud & Cybercrime Squad's Strike Force Rhodium "continues to investigate the Eels' NRL salary cap scandal and frauds committed against the club's parent, the Parramatta Leagues Club," with the behavior of Eels officials and others "under the microscope." NSW Deputy Chief Magistrate Chris O'Brien said that Seward's criminality in the fraud charges he faced was at "the lower end of objective seriousness for offences of this type." O'Brien said, "The most important distinguishing feature (from other similar cases) is that the board members ... connived in the commission of the offence. Those board members had, prior to the offender's engagement as CEO, created the circumstance that they then pressured the offender to resolve, and in his seeking to do so, the offence before the court was committed" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 7/14).
