The former rugby league executive under fire for his alleged role in the salary cap scandal that has seen Melbourne Storm stripped of two national titles Friday quit his new rugby union club.
Brian Waldron, a former chief executive of the Storm, has resigned as boss of the new Melbourne Rebels Super Rugby franchise after the breach, detected in an audit investigation.
Waldron has come under fire for his alleged role in the salary cap debacle after National Rugby League (NRL) chief executive David Gallop revealed that the Storm had maintained a dual player contract system.
The NRL cracked down heavily on the three-time champions, nullifying their 2007 and 2009 titles and saying they would not be allowed to accrue any premiership points in the 2010 season.
The club was fined 500,000 dollars and forced to return 1.1 million dollars in prize money, to be distributed among the other (NRL) clubs.
Rebels Chairman Harold Mitchell said Waldron had tendered his resignation on Friday and had been replaced by Australian Rugby Union official Pat Wilson in an acting capacity.
Mitchell, whose Rebels team will make their debut in the expanded Super 15 competition next year, said following the revelations he had ordered a review of all Rebels accounts and books by the club's auditors.
"I need to know everything," he said on national radio.
"That's the way you have to be in things. In life you have to know the details of where and how.
"We've got an outstanding group around us and we don't need to (review the books) but we just like looking at everything."
John Hartigan, the boss of News Limited, which owns the Storm and one half of the NRL, on Thursday alleged Waldron was the "architect" of the Storm salary cap fraud.
"He's the centre, and while it's early days, he appears to be the architect of the whole shooting match," Hartigan said of Waldron.
Gallop described as "extraordinary" the level of deception the Storm club had engaged in to retain three of Australian rugby league's biggest stars -- Billy Slater, Greg Inglis and Cameron Smith.
"They (Storm) had a long-term system of effectively two sets of books and the elaborate lengths they have gone through to cover this up has been extraordinary," he told reporters.
"The most damning indictment is the systematic attempt by persons within the club to conceal payments from the (NRL) salary cap auditor and, it would now seem certain from the club's board and from its owners, on an ongoing basis.
"It was through this system that they were able to attract and retain some of the biggest names in rugby league."
Two Storm officials, one of them acting chief executive Matt Hanson, have been stood down in the immediate fallout from the investigations.
Source: AFP Global Edition
