ACT Brumbies audit report investigation referred to ASIC by ACT Policing

ACT Policing referred the rugby union club to ASIC to investigate unidentified potential breaches.

Last year, the Brumbies and the Australian Rugby Union referred to police details of the club's controversial sale of its Griffith headquarters and subsequent move to the University of Canberra after uncovering "anomalies" in transactions.

Former club chief executive Michael Jones had previously ordered KPMG to audit the sale. KPMG's report remains suppressed by the ACT Supreme Court, although some details emerged before the suppression order and afterwards through questions asked in the ACT Parliament by the Liberals.

A police spokeswoman said on Wednesday that police had finished assessing the report.

"During the assessment, ACT Policing identified matters for the consideration of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission," she said.

"On October 11, 2016, the chief police officer referred the matter to [ASIC]."

Police provided no further details.

When he received the KPMG report last year, Mr Jones, who has since left the club after a bitter dispute over the report, said its allegations were serious enough to be referred to police – which was one of the options given by KPMG.

Mr Jones then said the KPMG report had "identified a number of unanswered questions in the transactions and agreements, and the board determined there was no alternative but to act in accordance with corporations law and refer the matter to the police".

Brumbies president Bob Brown was unsurprised at the referral to ASIC.

"It was kind of our expectation that would happen anyway. It's an AFP decision as to how they would handle that," he said "I think one of their options is to go that route because there's a number of different elements they could be looking at."

Asked whether the ongoing investigations prompted concerns about the Brumbies' future in Super Rugby, Brumbies chief executive Phil Thomson said the timing was "interesting" but raised no concerns.

"I'm confident it doesn't raise any doubts whatsoever," he said.

The Brumbies revealed plans to sell the Griffith land in 2009, and finalised the sale to Amalgamated Property Group in 2013.

The developer has built an apartment complex on the site, while the Brumbies have moved to the University of Canberra.

Questions have been raised about Chief Minister (then treasurer) Andrew Barr's decision to grant a $7.5 million tax waiver for the sale.

The waiver was announced as benefiting the Brumbies but the Liberals have questioned whether it actually benefited the private developer.

Questions have also been raised about the Brumbies' move to the University of Canberra and the university's sponsorship deal with the Brumbies. The Liberals asked for details of the sponsorship arrangement – a request that has gone unanswered – and whether "any other entity" had "paid a cash sponsorship to the Brumbies on the University of Canberra's behalf".

The Brumbies board stood down Mr Jones in March after a radio interview, in which he warned "the people out there who are having a hack at me" to "back off" because "if I go to war, it's going to be ugly and there are going to be a lot of people who get burned by it".

Mr Jones went to the Supreme Court seeking an injunction against the decision to stand him down, alleging detrimental action against him because he has raised concerns about the land deals.

In his court action, he named University of Canberra vice-chancellor Stephen Parker, Joe Roff, and former Labor deputy chief minister David Lamont, who brokered the Brumbies land deal, accusing them of pressuring the Brumbies board to stand him down. He has since settled the case but the KPMG report remains suppressed.

Mr Roff has said there was no basis for him to be drawn into the case. In April, Mr Parker said he had been assured by the Brumbies that none of the allegations concerned the university or its employees.

ASIC said it could not discuss the referral.