SEARLE: CHARITY OWES ME $300K
FORMER rugby league bigwig Michael Searle says he is resigned to losing almost $300,000 from a scandal involving a charity he founded 10 years ago.
The former Gold Coast Titans boss has broken his silence about the three-year investigation into embattled charity Titans 4 Tomorrow, which left a trail of debt and a toplevel administrator jailed for fraud.
It can be revealed former professional footballer Michael Scott Close, who claimed to be the T4T general manager, was sentenced to three months jail in April and ordered to repay $96,000.
Liquidators are combing the assets of T4T in search of $371,000 owed to creditors.
Documents released late last month reveal there is just $5.50 held in the charity’s Westpac bank account.
Mr Searle’s company, MTS Sports Trust, is the largest creditor and is owed $255,612; Pivotal Sports Partnership, which includes companies owned by Mr Searle, Mark Sessarago and Joel Parkinson is owed $50,000; and Mr Searle is personally owed $21,780.
“I’m not going to see that money,” he said. “Nobody will see that money ... I have put a lot of money into NRL in this town and I am not going to get that back.”
The Bulletin uncovered the financial plight of T4T in 2014, revealing it was paying $748,000 rent at the Titans’ illfated Centre of Excellence in 2011. It dropped to just $88,000 in 2013, despite T4T increasing its programs tenfold.
At that time the charity was receiving $1.5 million of taxpayers’ money.
FORMER rugby league bigwig Michael Searle says he is resigned to losing almost $300,000 from a scandal involving a charity he founded 10 years ago.
The former Gold Coast Titans boss has broken his silence about the three-year investigation into embattled charity Titans 4 Tomorrow, which left a trail of debt and a top-level administrator jailed for fraud.
It can be revealed former professional footballer Michael Scott Close, who claimed to be the T4T general manager, was sentenced to three months jail in April and ordered to repay $96,000.
Liquidators are combing the assets of T4T in search of $371,000 owed to creditors.
Documents from liquidators released late last month reveal creditors are owned a combined $371,000 while there is just $5.50 held in the charity’s Westpac bank account.
Mr Searle’s company, MTS Sports Trust, is the largest creditor and is owed $255,612; Pivotal Sports Partnership, which includes companies owned by Mr Searle, Mark Sessarago and Joel Parkinson is owed $50,000; and Mr Searle is personally owed $21,780.
“I’m not going to see that money,” he said. “Nobody will see that money.
“I have put a lot of money into NRL in this town and I am not going to get that back.”
Michael Close’s sentence comes four years after the Gold Coast Bulletin uncovered the financial plight of T4T. The reporting triggered Australian Federal Police raids on the charity’s Southport office in June 2015.
The Bulletin revealed the charity was paying $748,000 rent at the Titans’ ill-fated Centre of Excellence in 2011. It dropped to just $88,000 in 2013, despite T4T increasing its programs tenfold.
At that time the charity was receiving $1.5 million of taxpayers’ money.
The $10 million, six-storey Centre of Excellence was considered a state-of-the art league facility when work began in 2009.
Within three years, however, debts of up to $25 million had crippled the club’s property arm. It sold the facility to Bond University and the Titans rented two levels.
A Bulletin search into T4T company records in August 2014 also found:
The organisation sought three loans — one unsecured of $350,000, another secured of $347,359 and one in 2013 from Gold Coast Titans Pty Ltd for $417,392.
Received $2.3 million in Federal Government funding in 2013, and $1.35 million in 2012 and generated more than $3.5 million in outside sponsorship for that period.
As of October 2013, had more than $1.5 million in liabilities.
Paid $370,000 $237,000 in consultancy over two years.
Mr Searle, a major shareholder and board member of the Titans resigned the week the Bulletin exposed the financials of the organisation.
Months later he said he’d poured $3.2 million into the club and left without a cent. The NRL did not paid out any one shareholder.
Later in 2015, Mr Searle said T4T had closed. However, it did not go into liquidation until February this year.
Speaking on the Gold Coast and fees last week, Mr Searle said the charity did some “amazing work” and that should not be forgotten.
“It is sad it had to come to an end in the way it did but that’s life and we have all moved on,” he said.
Michael Close, who played for North Sydney Bears, was convicted at Toronto Local Court in New South Wales in December. His appeal was dismissed at Newcastle District Court on April 16.
“Mr Close forged numerous documents which falsely claimed that T4T had delivered a training and employment program to about 40 young indigenous adults,” a Director of Commonwealth Public Prosecutions spokesman said.
“The forged and false documents were subsequently submitted to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and resulted in $96,000 in Commonwealth funding being obtained by deception.”
Close is listed as a consultant in liquidation documents but on LinkedIn he has the title of general manager.
Mr Searle — who founded T4T in 2008 with the aim to provide economic development for indigenous people and communities through improved health, education and employment outcomes — would not comment on Close’s conviction, saying it was a matter dealt with in court.
Most of the organisation’s income came from the Federal Government and Mr Searle said the fraud investigation affected the charity’s ability to secure future grants, forcing him to close the company in late 2015.