AN independent audit has found Nathan Tinkler met all his first-year financial obligations to the Newcastle Knights, but financial storm clouds still linger over the club.
The Newcastle Knights Members Club yesterday accepted and approved an independent audit into the Knights, completed last week, in a move effectively freeing up $9.7 million of the embattled entrepreneur's funds.
However, the Knights, the A-League's Newcastle Jets and the Hunter Sports Group - the Tinkler-controlled company that owns both - still face being wound up by the Australian Taxation Office over $2.7m in unpaid debts.
Before buying the Knights in 2011, at the request of the then owners, the Newcastle Knights Members Club, Tinkler placed $20m in trust to support the club in case he faced financial problems. That $20m deposit was to fall to $10.3m - meaning Tinkler has access to the remainder - this month if Hunter Sports Group had fulfilled a string of obligations to the Knights.
Those obligations included ensuring the club gained $10m worth of sponsorship in the 2012 season, that $2.5m be invested in junior development at the club and that the club's working capital needs be met.
The members board said independent auditor Crosbie Warren Sinclair had last week reported all those conditions had been met. "The members board have done their job by receiving the audit and now it is time for the Knights and everyone at the club to focus on the season ahead," said Knights chairman Paul Harragon.
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