Embattled Australian concert promoter Andrew McManus reportedly had two of his properties raided by NSW and Victoria Police last week and continues to be the centre of an ongoing investigation related to $702,000 cash found in a suitcase in a Sydney hotel room.
According to Fairfax Media, a spokeswoman for Victoria Police confirmed that on Thursday a joint taskforce had executed search warrants at the promoter’s business premises in Richmond and his home in Mornington Peninsula.
The warrants related to an ongoing NSW Police investigation, and come after it was reported that, during a police interview in 2012, McManus claimed to be the owner of $702,000 cash found in a suitcase.
“I gave someone 700 large, and you’ve found someone with 700 large. It’s my 700 large,” he reportedly stated. The documents state that McManus told police that the money in the case was the proceeds from a Lenny Kravitz tour and he had used about 20 crew members to “sneak” the cash in from New Zealand.
Fairfax adds that documents tendered in NSW Supreme Court also reveal that McManus had received $450,000 from Perth bikie gang the Coffin Cheaters and was implicated in the well-publicised Melbourne Storm salary cap scandal.
Last week it was reported that during the same 2012 police interview, McManus, now the director of One World Entertainment, admitted to withholding from bands including Fleetwood Mac, cash made from ticket sales. McManus soon took to his promotion company’s Facebook page to deny these allegations.
Though McManus claimed in 2012 that the cash in the suitcase was his, he has since stated that he was under the influence of morphine and alcohol at the time of the interview with police, according to Fairfax. In 2011, his former company Andrew McManus Presents faced collapse and was put into liquidation with large tax debts following a string of failed ventures.
Last month a Supreme Court judge refused an application for the money found in the suitcase to be returned to former cage fighter and McManus associate Sean Carolan, who was found with the cash at Sydney’s Hilton Hotel in August 2011. The judge claimed the court was yet to determine who is “lawfully entitled” to it.
