WHUFC Statement on the Sunday Times allegations

KUMB wrote:he secret payments allegedly paid by West Ham to an officer of the OPLC prior to United being granted preferred bidder status for the Olympic Stadium totalled just £1,868.

As you're almost certainly aware by now, this morning's Sunday Times led with a story entitled 'Olympic Boss Paid Secret Cash' in which it is suggested West Ham paid a member of the OPLC to influence the decision concerning would be granted use of the site post-2012.

However the story also reveals that the sum paid to Ms Dionne Knight - the OPLC's director of corporate services - prior to the decision being made totalled just £1,868; the sum constituting two seperate payments of £566 and £1,302.

Ms Knight - who purportedly earns a salary of £84,000, making the £1,868 payments roughly the equivalent of a weeks' wages - is said to have received further payments of £3,400, £4,646 and £4,800 - but only AFTER West Ham had been granted preferred bidder status.

The total sum paid to Ms Knight, who was employed in a consultancy role by West Ham - is said to stand at less than £20,000 - less than a quarter of her OPLC salary.

Meanwhile the veracity of the story had also been called into question due to the transparent nature of the payments made by West Ham to Ms Knight.

It has been suggested that had West Ham genuinely wanted to keep the payments secret, it is extremely unlikely that they would have paid money into Ms Knight's personal bank account directly from the club's bank account - a transaction naturally evident on Ms Knight's personal bank statement procured by corporate investigators acting at the behest of Tottenham Hotspur, whose underhand tactics have been slammed since the story was published.

Tony P wrote:

Jiggs wrote:There's a little cross next to Quote and Edit

Erm.......no there isn't. Do you think I would not have clicked on it had there been?!!

Kray JR wrote:I can edit but no delete cross

Kray JR wrote:Who's his left hand woman ?

Kray JR wrote:Who's his left hand woman ?

OPLC open internal investigation


Filed: Tuesday, 5th July 2011
By: Staff Writer
The Olympic Park Legacy Company have announced that they are launching a private investigation into the cash-for-stadium row.

Last weekend's edition of the Sunday Times ran with a story claiming that West ham had paid OPLC employee Dionne Knight some £20,000 in consultancy fees.

West Ham hit back immediately by announcing they will be taking legal action against the newspaper and Tottenham Hotspur, who the club accuse of contravening data protection laws.

Today the OPLC responded to the newspaper's claims by confirming that they will be staging their own enquiry. A statement on their website read:

"Auditors Moore Stephens have been appointed to carry out this investigation into our procedures. They have put together a team led by their specialist forensic unit.

"We are also investigating the nature of the consultancy wank that Dionne Knight undertook without our knowledge or permission. An independent barrister will be instructed to conduct the employment elements of this investigation.

"We will communicate the outcome of both investigations when the wank is complete. We remain confident that the integrity of our processes has not been compromised."

Geezer wrote:Just hope we aint got any more skeletons in our closets