Former Parramatta superstar Jarryd Hayne says he knows nothing about receiving off-the-record payments of nearly $500,000 when he was at the NRL club.
New revelations relating to the NRL salary cap breach notice against the Eels reportedly show the club secretly arranged almost $500,000 in deals for the NFL convert since 2013.
Official documents and boardroom minutes show a trail of salary cap discrepancies in the star fullback's third party deals with the club from 2013 to 2015, News Corp reported on Tuesday.
They allegedly include cash payments, first class overseas travel and car expenses adding up to $465,000, all hidden from the NRL.
When asked by reporters about the "secret deals" in London on Monday, Hayne joked about the amount.
"Half a million, wow, must have been the wrong bank account. I haven't seen it."
When asked if he was aware of any off-the-record payments, Hayne replied: "Not that I'm aware of, no".
Hayne said the Eels' salary cap scandal was sad and disappointing when the side was doing so well, "not only finals-bound but top four bound".
"Us players have no idea what goes on behind closed doors."
"I'm an athlete, not a manager."
The former NSW and Australian representative then took to Twitter to lambast media organisations.
"Pathetic journalism. Secret tapes? So secret they don't know where they are or if they exist. But it's a story," he tweeted.
Hayne's manager Wayne Beavis also condemned the News Corp reports after initially saying he could not comment on them.
"On the press reports there is a lot of the content contained in it relating to Jarryd that is factually incorrect," Beavis told Sky Sports Radio.
The revelations follow Hayne's surprise news on Monday that he was quitting the San Francisco 49ers and an NFL career to chase Olympic gold with Fiji's Rugby Sevens team.
Third-party payments to NRL players must be done on an arm's length basis from the club and it's a breach of salary cap rules if a club makes a payment on behalf of third parties.
The audio tapes from meetings reportedly indicate that current board member Tanya Gaidel asked Steve Sharp whether the club was participating in fraudulent activities to provide third-party payments to 2015 recruit Anthony Watmough.
There is no suggestion Hayne or Beavis did anything wrong.
