The author of the Hawthorn racism report has been arrested as part of a historical fraud investigation at a Victorian Aboriginal organisation.
Former Richmond footballer Phil Egan was arrested yesterday and interviewed by police.
He has been released and, police say, is expected to be charged on summons with fraud-related offences.
Mr Egan has again denied any wrongdoing during his time as CEO of the Murray Valley Aboriginal Cooperative [MVAC] in north-west Victoria from 2010 to 2012.
Mr Egan said he was cooperating with police and said the arrest was part of a scheduled meeting with investigators yesterday.
"No charges have been laid and I'm confident no charges will be laid once the document trail is presented to Victorian Police over the coming weeks," he said.
"This investigation is not an opinion based one...it's about documents and it's about truth and I am 100 per cent confident my documents will hold up against these enquiries."
Police said the investigation was ongoing.
The ABC understands allegations of financial discrepancies at the organisation were first reported to police in 2018.
When news of the investigation emerged in December 2022, Mr Egan described the allegations as "slurs against my name" and claimed they were attempts to discredit the AFL review sparked by the Hawthorn report.
Hawthorn commissioned a review of how First Nations players were treated at the club, after allegations of mistreatment.
Chief among the allegations was one by a former player who said he was urged by the club to encourage his partner to terminate a pregnancy for the sake of his career.
The report was handed to Hawthorn in September.
The AFL announced Bernard Quinn KC would lead the investigation into the report's findings.
