The South Sydney patriarch George Piggins has accused the Rabbitohs co-owners Russell Crowe and Peter Holmes a Court of sending private investigators to spy on him and search in the garbage bins of those opposed to their takeover of the club - and this is why Piggins now refuses to return to the fold.
In an open letter to South Sydney supporters, penned exclusively for The Sun-Herald, Piggins outlines his reasons for distancing himself from the club he saved from the brink of oblivion. In the letter, he states: ''Crowe and Holmes a Court used the services of Palladino and Sutherland, an American private investigation firm, to come to Australia to investigate us, as well as using other local investigators to secretly search garbage bins of those opposed to the takeover bid, and secretly photograph me, my family and friends.''
In a defamation case that a South Sydney supporter, Tony Papaconstuntinos, brought against Holmes a Court in the Supreme Court of NSW in April 2009, the club co-owner admitted using the services of the US private investigation firm to spy on members of the ''no'' vote against his and Crowe's privatisation of the club.
Under cross-examination, the multimillionaire businessman said the firm had been hired to investigate death threats against the Oscar-winning actor Crowe, as well as other threats. Holmes a Court told the court: ''There was for a very short period of time a group of American investigators when the threats were made against Russell Crowe that Russell engaged and then they directed some Australian associates of theirs to continue the investigation.''
But Holmes a Court also admitted to the court the he had lied about death threats against himself - ''it was absolutely a fabrication'' - to deflect attention from Crowe who, he said, had been threatened in 2006. Holmes a Court added that he did fear for his own safety.
Papaconstuntinos won the case, although Holmes a Court had this overturned on appeal, while the Piggins camp has had five actions settled in their favour.
The American firm - which has acted for the Russian mafia, the former US president Bill Clinton and the Black Panthers - has been heavily criticised in the US Congress. The private investigator Jack Palladino played himself in The Insider, a film nominated for seven Academy Awards in which Crowe played a tobacco industry whistleblower, Jeffrey Wigand.
The Sun-Herald provided Crowe and Holmes a Court an opportunity to comment yesterday. Instead, the Rabbitohs replied with the following statement from their chairman, Nicholas Pappas: ''It is in no one's interest, least of all the players, [coach] Michael Maguire and his coaching staff, that the past is revisited at this time.
''All supporters of this great club of ours are invited to be part of the club's continuing resurgence.''
As the Rabbitohs charge towards just their second finals appearance in more than two decades - and potentially a long-awaited 21st premiership - the calls for Piggins to return have grown louder. With a top-four spot and a home semi-final all but assured, fans and former players have called for the legendary former Rabbitohs player and coach to attend a Souths game.
However, Piggins has chosen now as the time to articulate his reasons for staying away to ensure the spotlight is solely on the players during their upcoming playoff campaign.
''I guess to a great number of people it might seem very strange that I remain reluctant to attend a Souths game,'' Piggins says in his letter.
''The attacks upon me, my family and my friends were so severe that five defamation actions were settled out of court in my favour … I can assure you I'll be screaming for [Souths] right throughout the finals together with my close friends and family.''
While Piggins's deeds as a player are legendary - he represented his state and country and is considered one of the greatest to wear the Rabbitohs' ''cardinal and myrtle'' - his greatest legacy was achieved off the field. Having coached the Rabbitohs for nothing during their toughest years, he led and won the fight to have the club reinstated into the NRL competition after it was expelled during the Super League war. He has no issue with the players and has even privately met with Maguire, at the coach's invitation, to discuss the club's history.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/south-sydney-rabbitohs/they-spied-on-me-says-piggins-20120811-241ek.html#ixzz23HvKCxh9
South Sydney patriarch and former chairman George Piggins has claimed Rabbitohs co-owners Russell Crowe and Peter Holmes a Court hired a US private investigation firm to dig up dirt on him and his family during the battle for the club in 2006.
In an explosive and emotional open letter penned to The Sunday Telegraph, Piggins details why he continues to stand firm on his seven-year exile from the club he helped save by marching to Town Hall with more than 100,000 rugby league fans.
Piggins claims the US private investigation company of Jack Palladino, who played a role alongside Crowe in the Hollywood movie The Insider, was recruited to try to "destroy me, my family and friends in their quest to privatise the club".
Piggins's claims were aired in the NSW Supreme Court three years ago in a defamation action brought against Holmes a Court by CFMEU president Tony Papa.
Under oath, the Rabbitohs co-owner said Crowe had engaged private investigators in the lead-up to the March 2006 election.
Holmes a Court said Crowe used the services of Sandra Sutherland, the wife and business partner of Palladino, to try to find the source of an alleged death threat against the Hollywood star.
In his letter, Piggins claims: "Crowe and Holmes a Court used the services of Palladino and Sutherland, a US private investigation firm, to travel to Australia to spy on people opposed to the takeover of the club in a dirt digging exercise.
"Secret photographs were taken of me, my family, as well as my supporters, by local covert surveillance operators and we were secretly followed.
"Since that day I have not been to a match. The attacks on me continued. I was responsible for everything bad about Souths."
Palladino has worked for former US President Bill Clinton and played himself alongside Crowe in The Insider, the hit movie about former tobacco executive Jeffrey Wigand turning whistleblower against the industry to win a $200 billion court settlement.
Piggins was stunned to wake one morning three years ago and discover a dossier of emails and paperwork tossed under the garage door of his South Coogee home.
The fine print was dynamite. A disgruntled whistleblower involved in the "vote Yes" campaign, Graeme Tunks, had flipped after a massive blow-up with Holmes a Court and decided to leak details of the behind-the-scenes battle.
Aside from admitting private investigator Sutherland, the wife of Palladino, had spent up to 18 hours personally interviewing him, the Rabbitohs member also included a paper trail showing that Holmes a Court had been in regular contact with the rebel South Sydney fan website rabbitohs.com.
The website, which was half-owned by Tunks, had waged a campaign against Piggins, including publishing a doctored pornographic image of his wife Nolene with ex-South Sydney board member Jim Lahood.
It is not suggested Holmes a Court knew about the image.
"From day one (Holmes a Court) was digging for information on George and I told him what I knew," Tunks said.
"It was a strategic alliance. I had a private investigator come to my home twice and stay for about 15 hours in total.
"In the second meeting, one of the ex-Souths directors was at my place, Jerry Lissing.
"He had serious inside knowledge of how George's board worked.
"Everything she asked us was about money, about connections with the CFMEU and the water front."
The cosy relationship between Holmes a Court and Tunks got so tight the Rabbitohs co-owner hosted the former Naval officer for dinner at his Centennial Park home.
And when the "yes vote" won a 75 per cent majority at the ballot box by the margin of 13 votes, Holmes a Court sent Tunks a set of golf balls emblazoned with the Rabbitohs emblem and a note that read: "It took balls. Peter"
The Sunday Telegraph contacted Holmes a Court about the allegations and he declined to comment.
Read more: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/george-piggins-claims-russell-crowe-and-peter-homes-a-court-played-dirty-in-battle-for-control-of-the-rabbitohs/story-e6frexnr-1226448251662
In an open letter to South Sydney supporters, penned exclusively for The Sun-Herald, Piggins outlines his reasons for distancing himself from the club he saved from the brink of oblivion. In the letter, he states: ''Crowe and Holmes a Court used the services of Palladino and Sutherland, an American private investigation firm, to come to Australia to investigate us, as well as using other local investigators to secretly search garbage bins of those opposed to the takeover bid, and secretly photograph me, my family and friends.''
In a defamation case that a South Sydney supporter, Tony Papaconstuntinos, brought against Holmes a Court in the Supreme Court of NSW in April 2009, the club co-owner admitted using the services of the US private investigation firm to spy on members of the ''no'' vote against his and Crowe's privatisation of the club.
Under cross-examination, the multimillionaire businessman said the firm had been hired to investigate death threats against the Oscar-winning actor Crowe, as well as other threats. Holmes a Court told the court: ''There was for a very short period of time a group of American investigators when the threats were made against Russell Crowe that Russell engaged and then they directed some Australian associates of theirs to continue the investigation.''
But Holmes a Court also admitted to the court the he had lied about death threats against himself - ''it was absolutely a fabrication'' - to deflect attention from Crowe who, he said, had been threatened in 2006. Holmes a Court added that he did fear for his own safety.
Papaconstuntinos won the case, although Holmes a Court had this overturned on appeal, while the Piggins camp has had five actions settled in their favour.
The American firm - which has acted for the Russian mafia, the former US president Bill Clinton and the Black Panthers - has been heavily criticised in the US Congress. The private investigator Jack Palladino played himself in The Insider, a film nominated for seven Academy Awards in which Crowe played a tobacco industry whistleblower, Jeffrey Wigand.
The Sun-Herald provided Crowe and Holmes a Court an opportunity to comment yesterday. Instead, the Rabbitohs replied with the following statement from their chairman, Nicholas Pappas: ''It is in no one's interest, least of all the players, [coach] Michael Maguire and his coaching staff, that the past is revisited at this time.
''All supporters of this great club of ours are invited to be part of the club's continuing resurgence.''
As the Rabbitohs charge towards just their second finals appearance in more than two decades - and potentially a long-awaited 21st premiership - the calls for Piggins to return have grown louder. With a top-four spot and a home semi-final all but assured, fans and former players have called for the legendary former Rabbitohs player and coach to attend a Souths game.
However, Piggins has chosen now as the time to articulate his reasons for staying away to ensure the spotlight is solely on the players during their upcoming playoff campaign.
''I guess to a great number of people it might seem very strange that I remain reluctant to attend a Souths game,'' Piggins says in his letter.
''The attacks upon me, my family and my friends were so severe that five defamation actions were settled out of court in my favour … I can assure you I'll be screaming for [Souths] right throughout the finals together with my close friends and family.''
While Piggins's deeds as a player are legendary - he represented his state and country and is considered one of the greatest to wear the Rabbitohs' ''cardinal and myrtle'' - his greatest legacy was achieved off the field. Having coached the Rabbitohs for nothing during their toughest years, he led and won the fight to have the club reinstated into the NRL competition after it was expelled during the Super League war. He has no issue with the players and has even privately met with Maguire, at the coach's invitation, to discuss the club's history.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/south-sydney-rabbitohs/they-spied-on-me-says-piggins-20120811-241ek.html#ixzz23HvKCxh9
South Sydney patriarch and former chairman George Piggins has claimed Rabbitohs co-owners Russell Crowe and Peter Holmes a Court hired a US private investigation firm to dig up dirt on him and his family during the battle for the club in 2006.
In an explosive and emotional open letter penned to The Sunday Telegraph, Piggins details why he continues to stand firm on his seven-year exile from the club he helped save by marching to Town Hall with more than 100,000 rugby league fans.
Piggins claims the US private investigation company of Jack Palladino, who played a role alongside Crowe in the Hollywood movie The Insider, was recruited to try to "destroy me, my family and friends in their quest to privatise the club".
Piggins's claims were aired in the NSW Supreme Court three years ago in a defamation action brought against Holmes a Court by CFMEU president Tony Papa.
Under oath, the Rabbitohs co-owner said Crowe had engaged private investigators in the lead-up to the March 2006 election.
Holmes a Court said Crowe used the services of Sandra Sutherland, the wife and business partner of Palladino, to try to find the source of an alleged death threat against the Hollywood star.
In his letter, Piggins claims: "Crowe and Holmes a Court used the services of Palladino and Sutherland, a US private investigation firm, to travel to Australia to spy on people opposed to the takeover of the club in a dirt digging exercise.
"Secret photographs were taken of me, my family, as well as my supporters, by local covert surveillance operators and we were secretly followed.
"Since that day I have not been to a match. The attacks on me continued. I was responsible for everything bad about Souths."
Palladino has worked for former US President Bill Clinton and played himself alongside Crowe in The Insider, the hit movie about former tobacco executive Jeffrey Wigand turning whistleblower against the industry to win a $200 billion court settlement.
Piggins was stunned to wake one morning three years ago and discover a dossier of emails and paperwork tossed under the garage door of his South Coogee home.
The fine print was dynamite. A disgruntled whistleblower involved in the "vote Yes" campaign, Graeme Tunks, had flipped after a massive blow-up with Holmes a Court and decided to leak details of the behind-the-scenes battle.
Aside from admitting private investigator Sutherland, the wife of Palladino, had spent up to 18 hours personally interviewing him, the Rabbitohs member also included a paper trail showing that Holmes a Court had been in regular contact with the rebel South Sydney fan website rabbitohs.com.
The website, which was half-owned by Tunks, had waged a campaign against Piggins, including publishing a doctored pornographic image of his wife Nolene with ex-South Sydney board member Jim Lahood.
It is not suggested Holmes a Court knew about the image.
"From day one (Holmes a Court) was digging for information on George and I told him what I knew," Tunks said.
"It was a strategic alliance. I had a private investigator come to my home twice and stay for about 15 hours in total.
"In the second meeting, one of the ex-Souths directors was at my place, Jerry Lissing.
"He had serious inside knowledge of how George's board worked.
"Everything she asked us was about money, about connections with the CFMEU and the water front."
The cosy relationship between Holmes a Court and Tunks got so tight the Rabbitohs co-owner hosted the former Naval officer for dinner at his Centennial Park home.
And when the "yes vote" won a 75 per cent majority at the ballot box by the margin of 13 votes, Holmes a Court sent Tunks a set of golf balls emblazoned with the Rabbitohs emblem and a note that read: "It took balls. Peter"
The Sunday Telegraph contacted Holmes a Court about the allegations and he declined to comment.
Read more: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/george-piggins-claims-russell-crowe-and-peter-homes-a-court-played-dirty-in-battle-for-control-of-the-rabbitohs/story-e6frexnr-1226448251662
