Hull City have accused the club's former chairman Paul Duffen in the high court of personally accepting "bungs" from agents in return for making sure the club did business deals with those agents, reports The Guardian. That claim was made in a court action in which Hull are suing Duffen for damages, for the alleged bung money to be paid to the club, and for the return of money and property they claim Duffen "acquired" for himself while he was a director.
Duffen accepted that a legal charge be placed on a property he owns, in favour of the club, to secure the money claimed, although he denied all the allegations made against him.
In their claim to the court, City allege that agents, who are not named, paid bungs to Duffen via Reef Securities, a company registered in the Bahamas with an office in Guernsey.
"In breach of his employment contracts and fiduciary duties to [the club] as director," the claim states, "certain monies were paid by third-party football agents to [Reef Securities] on [Paul Duffen's] behalf, in return for which [Duffen] procured that [the club] contract with the agents for business."
The claim also alleges that Duffen: "Used [the club's] monies for his own personal expenditure", and that "property, monies and other rights [were] acquired by [Duffen] through his use of [the club's] money in breach of authority and breach of trust".
A further allegation is that Duffen "was very frequently absent from the stadium, which was his designated place of work" while he was the chairman.
The document states that Duffen did not simply resign as a director on 26 ¬October last year, as announced at the time, but that his resignation followed "his suspension".
Duffen denied all the claims, with his barrister, Lexa Hilliard, saying that the agreement for him to have a charge over his property "is not to be taken in any way at all as an admission by Mr Duffen of any of the allegations made against him".