Police conclude investigation into Owen Glenn complaint

Owen Glenn (right) and Eric Watson are the new joint owners of the New Zealand Warriors. Photo / Paul Estcourt

Police have concluded a seven-month investigation into a complaint by Sir Owen Glenn that fellow Warriors owner Eric Watson threatened him during a fiery meeting in the club's boardroom in February.

Sir Owen alleged Mr Watson threatened to "tear my head off and shove it up my arse" and warned him not to wander around Auckland without minders.

"Those threats seemed absolutely real," Sir Owen told a Sunday newspaper in July.

Mr Watson denied the allegations and described Sir Owen as "unhinged".

A police spokeswoman said both parties would shortly be advised of the investigation's outcome.

Representatives of Sir Owen and Mr Watson did not respond to the Herald's request for comment.

Following the bust-up Sir Owen uninvited Mr Watson from his birthday party and the former friends have since communicated only through their lawyers.

Mr Watson has stated the altercation arose when he raised the issue of Sir Owen's conduct while representing the club, while Sir Owen said it was over the terms of his planned exit from the club.

However, court documents from the legal battle over the Warriors' ownership obtained by the Herald reveal claims the meeting was held to discuss a joint venture investment company which is now the subject of an offshore legal battle involving hundreds of millions of dollars.

Sir Owen has taken legal action in an attempt to recover the $6,122,500 he paid for a 50 per cent stake in the Warriors through an associated trust Kea Investments Ltd in March 2012.

However a figure with knowledge of the legal battles between the two moguls described the Warriors case as a "sideshow".

A statement of defence filed by EJ Group, a company that owns the remaining 50 per cent of the Warriors on behalf of interests associated with Mr Watson, claims the meeting between Mr Watson and Sir Owen was held to "discuss matters to an unrelated entity owned by Kea and interests associated with Mr Watson".

That unrelated entity is the British Virgin Islands registered company Spartan Capital Ltd, a Weekend Herald investigation revealed. Spartan is also the subject of legal action, with Sir Owen confirming that hundreds of millions of dollars from the 2012 sale of his global logistics business are tied up in the venture.

A lawsuit filed by Kea against Spartan and a trust associated with Mr Watson in the British Virgin Islands claims the company can no longer function as the two directors "have suffered a very serious breakdown in personal and business relations".

Kea's claim states Spartan's directors were "unable to agree whether the undeployed and uninvested capital provided to the company be way of a loan by Kea should be returned to Kea despite Kea's request for such funds to be returned".

[Spartan] was "sitting on a whole hump of money there that my trustees rather stupidly loaned [it] with very weak collateral and [Watson] is saying 'I'm not going to give it back'," Sir Owen told the Herald on August 27.

Sir Owen has accused Mr Watson of targeting him following sale of his business, however Mr Watson says it was Sir Owen who approached him about going into business together.

EJ Group's statement claims the verbal confrontation arose when Mr Watson advised Sir Owen about concerns held by the Warriors board about his conduct.

Those concerns - which have included allegations of embarrassing public behaviour that Sir Owen has denied - were officially raised by Warriors chairman Bill Wavish three days after the boardroom bust-up.

Mr Wavish wrote to the directors of GWNZ (the company that owns the Warriors on behalf of interests associated with Mr Watson and Sir Owen) on February 20, outlining concerns that included grabbing patrons' bottoms and sucking a wedge of lemon from the mouth of a female patron while out for dinner with three high-profile Warriors players, and asking a female member of his staff to purchase adult toys to give to players' wives and girlfriends.

Sir Owen has denied the allegations, claiming they are part of an "ongoing witch hunt".