Fugitive former Leinster and Australian rugby star Rocky Elsom has acknowledged his part in some of the transactions that led a French court to sentence him in absentia to a five-year prison term for forgery and embezzlement during his time as president of French club Narbonne.
“For the most part, yeah I did make them but they didn’t negatively impact the club in any way,” Elsom told Australian rugby podcast The Roar, saying findings against him were “very easy to defend” from his perspective.
“Over eight years they haven’t asked me a single question about this.”
Elsom was temporarily staying in Rathmines, Dublin, and coaching rugby at Catholic University School in Leeson Street when the conviction was handed down last month. He left Ireland as gardaí went to his residence and workplace to execute an international arrest warrant issued by France.
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The 41-year-old former player was found guilty in a Narbonne court of forgery, use of forgery and misuse of corporate assets in 2014 and 2015. He was ordered to repay €700,000 to the Narbonne club. He continues to deny any wrongdoing.
Interviewed by podcast host Christy Doran, Elsom said some of the charges related to salary advances to players and acknowledged such advances.
“They’re not alleging that the players didn’t pay back those salary advances over the course of the contracts. They’re saying that they did. They’re just saying that the club couldn’t afford to do it at the time,” Elsom said.
One of the forgery charges was for “having a doctor sign an employment agreement” on July 15th when he started on July 1st, Elsom said. “I would contest that it was an accurate reflection of his employment agreement and where is the harm done?”
The second forgery charge related to a legal bill, he said. A law firm charged €23,000 and he agreed but when new Narbonne owners took over they said the bill should be €18,000.
“Those things definitely happened but who is the victim here? Where have they been able to prove the club was disadvantaged by it?”
Although Elsom plans to appeal the conviction, he said he has little confidence in the French judicial system. He also declined to disclose his location after leaving Ireland.
“I was planning to be there for another month – maybe six weeks – so I had to leave pretty quickly,” Elsom said, without saying how he left Ireland.
“It would have been difficult for the Irish authorities not to send me back to France,” he added.
“Where the facts of the case don’t match with the legal system say in Australia then it’s a matter for the courts to decide whether an extradition is appropriate, whether the process was followed in a way that they respect. I can’t give too much comment as to how they will or how they do feel about it.
“But there is that opportunity that they refuse an extradition to France because they question the validity of the process and the findings.”
Asked why he would not face the French authorities “in the flesh”, Elsom said: “There are people in Narbonne who have had an unfair dismissal case unheard for eight years. So the law says that needs to be heard within six months.”
Elsom said he never knew a warrant was issued in 2023 for his arrest because it was not made public.
“I’m not sure that the authorities made any attempt to notify me of that. They haven’t said that they have. So they were able to have the trial without me there and without an advocate for me, so no defence from me,” he said.
“You’ll have to ask them why exactly why it took eight years but nothing in the claim that they’ve made against me – even if everything was true in the way that they’ve said it – nothing in the seven years leading up to the trial was new.
“So they could have made that complaint if they wanted to seven – eight – years ago. But for whatever reason they didn’t.”
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