Tigers back Indigenous centre head after chargesJake Niall
The Age
24 Jan 2019The Richmond Football Club will stand by the "exemplary" head of the club's Indigenous education centre, Aaron Clark, who has been charged with a number of offences in connection with a police operation aimed at his controversial father, former national Indigenous leader Geoff Clark.
Aaron Clark, 37, has been charged with 32 historical offences, as part of more than 1000 fraud, theft and deception charges that his family is facing - the vast majority of them levelled against his father Geoff and mother Trudy, with his brother Jeremy facing 114 charges.
Geoff Clark, long based near Warrnambool, is the former head of the now-abolished Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission.
Richmond has chosen to back Aaron Clark, the director of the Tigers' Korin Gamadji Institute - an Indigenous education and training centre - calling Clark an exemplary employee who is entitled to a presumption of innocence.
"Aaron has been an exemplary employee of this Club building globally recognised programming that supports Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth,'' said Richmond chief executive Brendon Gale.
"As he is entitled to the presumption of innocence, he will continue to fulfil his role while these historical matters are dealt with."
Richmond's view is that Clark has done an excellent job as head of the KGI, which was set up by the club to further the education, leadership potential and career pathways of Indigenous Australians.
As the director of KGI, Clark is believed to be the only senior executive of an AFL club with an Indigenous background. He led a Richmond KGI delegation to the United Nations last year.
The alleged offences, as with those levelled against Geoff Clark, date back as early as 2000, when Aaron Clark was a young man. The charges follow a police investigation into more than $2 million of allegedly stolen funds. Police reportedly began an investigation into Geoff Clark and the Framlingham Aboriginal Trust he managed back in 2013. The trust was placed in administration last year.
There are also allegations about funds being taken from the Kirrae Whurrong Community Incorporated, of which Aaron Clark is a director. The four initial charges against him, laid in September last year, related to a $60,000 eel fishing licence.
The five-year police investigation, code-named Operation Omega, centres on transactions between 2000 and 2010.
Geoff Clark has called the case the "biggest political assassination this district and this country has ever seen.
"These allegations aim to tarnish me and my family's reputation,'' he said.
Aaron Clark will face Warnambool Magistrates Court on April 5 with his parents and brother.
https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/tigers-back-indigenous-centre-head-after-charges-20190123-p50t6w.html
