Underworld figure Mick Gatto has confirmed he was approached by the Bombers in 2014.
The Herald Sun reported on Wednesday night that Essendon asked for Gatto’s help to fix the doping scandal, while the club was also accused of removing emails regarding the injections, covering up cocaine use, sexual harassment and fraud.
Gatto confirmed the approach in an interview which was aired on The Footy Show on Thursday night.
“With this one, I did get embroiled in it and I was approached,” Gatto told Sam Newman.
“They just wanted me to find out what was going on with it all and what I could find out and have a feel around."
Gatto's revelations come after Essendon Football Club released a statement on Wednesday night claiming the allegations against the club by former employees Dean Wallis and John Elliott, including the fact the club contacted Gatto, were false.
Gatto also claimed supplements supplier Shane Charter had evidence which could have cleared the Bombers.
“But listen, before you go down that track, I was approached by Shane Charter,” he said.
“Now Shane came and saw me and he said: ‘Mate, I’ve been hard done by here’.
“And he said: ‘I can prove without any shadow of a doubt that the supplement they brought over here’, the Miso-4 (Thymosin beta-4) or whatever it was, ‘I can prove that it wasn’t that, it was something else’.
“He had compelling evidence that it was legal.
“We done a deal with some members of Essendon who tried to do a deal and he wanted to be paid for it because of his hardship and what he had been dragged through. They wouldn’t hand over so they went and paid lawyers millions of dollars instead.”
