Sunrise rocked by allegation of "fraud"
Sunrise and the Seven Network have been rocked by an investigation by their biggest competitor, who exposed both allegations of "fraud", as well as threatening emails to a young journalist at Nine who was chasing the story.
The scandal began when a reporter for the Sydney Morning Herald was alerted to an investigation being conducted by an independent law firm into the Sunrise program.
According to reports by Nine, the law firm began an investigation, which was also conducted by a financial and corporate auditor, into reports that Sunrise staff members had grossly misused travel benefits.
The allegations claimed that a small number of Sunrise staffers, as well as some of their friends and family, had taken flights and stayed in hotels on trips not related to their work duties, using benefits provided to the network by Qantas as part of a multimillion-dollar advertising and sponsorship deal.
When business reporter for the Australian Financial Review Zoe Samios, a publication owned by Nine, reached out to Seven’s long-time commercial director Bruce McWilliam to chase the story, she was allegedly met with threatening emails saying her probes into the allegations had caused Seven’s star executive producer Michael Pell to self-harm.
“This is what your unfounded reports have caused Michael to do,” Mr McWilliam wrote to Ms Samios in October last year.
Attached to the email was a graphic image of him, bloodied and in a hospital gown, with a noticeable head wound.
“Why don’t you keep it up so he kills himself. You are a complete disgrace. That law firm you name didn’t conduct any investigation. If you publish untrue allegations … and he tops himself. It’s on you. We are determined to protect him,” the email read.
Speaking exclusively to news.com.au on Thursday as the investigations were made public for the first time, Mr McWilliam defended the email and said he was defending a colleague and “friend” against “false allegations”.
However, several months before the email, Mr Pell had stepped down as the boss of Sunrise and was appointed Seven's Senior Vice President of Entertainment Content in North America, and he moved to Los Angeles shortly after.
On Thursday, Mr McWilliam told news.com.au that he became incensed when Mr Pell’s name was linked to the investigation, prompting his fiery email to Samios.
“The accusations against Michael were exaggerated,” he told news.com.au.
“I make no excuse for having acted to protect a colleague, against whom false allegations were being made. Michael Pell has been a friend of mine for many years.”
The newspaper subsequently agreed to kill the story over concerns for Mr Pell’s mental health and wellbeing.
While the findings of the alleged expenses investigation were delivered to Seven and described as "serious", a source close to the investigation insists that while the accusations are significant, they do not constitute "fraud" in the legal sense.
Despite that, it’s understood that a small number of staff left the network following the findings being delivered to Seven, with the staffers signing nondisclosure agreements upon their departure.
The scandal's reemergence comes 18 moths after the initial allegations, as Seven finds itself in another controversy over its flagship current affairs program Spotlight and its handling of an exclusive interview with Bruce Lehrmann.
Image credits: Sunrise