Today’s pre-trial hearing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court against Charles Green, Craig Whyte and others involved in the business of Newco Rangers brings the state of the football club into stark focus.
Charles Green is accused of raising £21m for Newco Rangers by fraud via their December 2012 IPO. He is also accused of defrauding Sevco 5088 Ltd, the company who were awarded the right to buy the assets of liquidated oldco by administrators’ Duff and Phelps.
Craig Whyte maintained that he, or his associates, had a controlling interest in Sevco 5088 Ltd, and produced a famous recording allegedly featuring Green tell him “You are Sevco”. Although Duff and Phelps contracted to sell to Sevco 5088, another company, Sevco Scotland Ltd, actually bought the basket of assets.
Sevco Scotland was controlled by Charles Green or his associates. The company was renamed to The Rangers Football Club Ltd and is now a football club, sitting top of the Scottish Championship.
While in charge of Newco Rangers, Green’s PR issued a number of confusing statements around Sevco 5088, insisting both that he made certain arrangements with Whyte which he had no intention of honouring, and that he was entitled to switch the beneficiary of the Rangers liquidation Sale and Purchase agreement to Sevco Scotland Ltd. A move he claimed was to give the company a Scottish registration number.
The remainder of the various rap sheets tell grubby tales. Green is accused of fraudulently obtaining the £5.5m he used to acquire the assets of Rangers, and of using £200k from Rangers Youth Development Ltd to aid the purchase. Whyte is accused of defrauding Ticketus and Merchant Capital of £28m, and various other crimes and misdemeanours, but these issues are a side matter. The action regarding the future concerning football is with Charles Green.
Think back to his counsel’s words as he sought funding for his defence from Newco Rangers last month. The £21m IPO money and those assets purchased by Sevco Scotland were ploughed into the club now sitting at the top of the Championship. Should these charged be upheld, the assets would be proceeds of crime.
Green was allowed to issue unfathomable edicts as a desperate PR campaign blamed others for bizarre conspiracies. This was enough for an already-compliant media and he played to the gallery magnificently. Supporters lapped it up.
Under pressure to provide the stock market with a clean bill of health, the club went to the Masons for a report in April 2013, Pinsent Masons, who in conjunction with auditors, Deloitte, found none of the alleged links between Green and Whyte surrounding the asset sale and setting up of Newco. I understand the investigation heard no testimony from Craig Whyte, so found no evidence of anything inappropriate.
All of this provided temporary respite on the park and in the Scottish media but the ultimate Day of Reckoning was never going to be affected by PR. Should charges against Green be upheld, the only unfathomable consideration will be what future a football club with no legally acquired assets has.
There is a chance that all the dominoes will fall in Newco’s favour. That all charges are unsuccessful, that Mike Ashley relinquishes control of all contracts and that investment will be found to meet medium-term cash requirements. It is also possible that one or more of these dominoes will remain standing, and that nothing will ever be the same again.
Best of luck to all parties. I wonder when the penny will drop with those recently rooting for Green to be put away of the consequences……
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Burghbhoy
A fine eulogy to your father i read recently,
May John rest in peace.
HH
THEBATTEREDBUNNET
I’ll leave this alone after this post,promise.
A wee hypothesis for you.
Had the victims been from their own racial/religious background,what do you think the outcome would have been.
Would the police be scared to investigate it,the social services telling parents their kids were ‘making a lifestyle choice’?
Would it get as far as that,even?
The local community would have appealed to the mosque,sentence passed. A few child molesters off the streets.
Don’t kid yourself,they targeted white kids because they were confident of getting away with it.
And they did,for a long time,long enough to ruin lives.
Now,I’ll grant you that is not in itself racism. But it is an example of how vulnerable people need protection.
The Moslem community provide that to their own,by and large.
We don’t. And worse,frequently blame the victims.
From EasyJambo on SFM. – The rap sheet
I’m unable to discuss any matters discussed in court today but here is a summary of the updated indictment, which is a public document.
CW – Whyte, GW – Withey, DG – Grier, DW – Whitehouse, PC – Paul Clark, CG – Green, IA Ahmad
Substance of the charges:
1. CW, GW, DG, DW, PC conspired to obtain funds by fraud from Jerome, Merchant and Ticketus to fund the fraudulent purchase of the club (offence was aggravated)
• CW & GW obtained £2,825,000 by fraud from the trustees of the Jerome Pension Fund
• CW & GW obtained £1,000,00 by fraud from Merchant Turnaround PLC
• CW, GW & DG made false representations to Rangers Independent committee about the funding of the purchase
• CW & GW obtained £24,337,094 by fraud from Ticketus
• CW & GW made false representations to the Takeover panel re the funding
• CW failed to disclose a disqualification as a director
• CW & GW made false representation to the PLUS stock exchange re CW’s disqualification
• CW, GW & DG made false representations to Murray Holdings Ltd re funding of the purchase and the future funding of the club including the wee tax case (£2,800,000) and an H&S liability (£1,700,000)
2. CW & GW contravened the proceeds of crime act using the £28,262,094 obtained by fraud when purchasing the club
3. DG, DW & PC failed to report suspicions of Money Laundering by CW & GW using “Financial Assistance” to purchase the club, contrary to the proceeds of crime act
4. CW, GW, DG, DW, PC did conspire together to act as in Charge 1
5. CW & GW breached the Companies Act by using the clubs own money to fund the acquisition (Financial Assistance”
6. CW & GW committed fraud by failing to disclose CW’s disqualification to the SFA
7. CW & DG committed fraud by falsely submitting invoices for £253,800 to Rangers which should have been submitted to Liberty Capital.
8. CW & DG committed fraud by falsely submitting invoices for £409,320 to Rangers which should have been submitted to Liberty Capital.
9. CW & DG committed fraud by falsely submitting invoices for £66,120 to Rangers which should have been submitted to Liberty Capital.
10. CW, GW, DG, DW & PC conspired to defraud creditors, including non-payment of taxes and while they ran the club in order to facilitate CW in buying back the club debt free, which was in breach of the Companies Act
11. DW & PC perverted the course of justice when stating to Lord Hodge that they were unaware of the Ticketus arrangements
12. CW, GW, DW, PC, CG & IA conspired to defraud creditors by purchasing the club’s business and assets significantly below market value.
• CW, DW & PC sought to put the club in administration• Caused the court to appoint DW & PC as administrators
• DW & PC falsely pretended to act in the interests of all creditors
• CG falsely presented himself as an independent purchaser
• DW & PC pretended that the purpose of administration was to get the best return for creditors
• CW acquired Sevco 5088 of which CG was appointed director• CG received £25,000 from CW to pay legal fees related to Sevco 5088
• CG paid the legal fees with the £25,000
• IA paid the administrators DW & PC £200,000 as an exclusivity fee
• DW & PC granted Sevco 5088 exclusivity to the exclusion of other prospective purchasers
• CW paid £137,000 into IA’s mother’s account as part payment of the exclusivity fee
• DW & PC completed a sale and purchase agreement with CG on behalf of both Sevco 5088 and Sevco Scotland for a price of £5,500,000, significantly below market value.
• DW & PC falsely advised creditors that SPL prize money was reflected in the consideration paid for the assets, but the sale and purchase agreement reflected a “nil” consideration
• Permitted the transfer of £291,823.10 from Rangers Youth Development to help fund the purchase of assets
13. CW, GW, DW, PC, CG & IA participated in a conspiracy to purchase the business and assets of the club depriving creditors of the rightful sums due to them and the material benefit going to themselves
14. CW and IA defrauded investors in Sevco 5088 and RIFC, acquiring money and shares by fraud and to increase the value of their shares in RIFC
• CW pretended he had no interest in Sevco 5088• Induced investors to put £5,500,000 into Sevco 5088
• CG caused the change of exclusivity from Sevco 5088 to Sevco Scotland without proper approval
• CG did appropriate the £5,500,000 invested in Sevco 5088 by fraud without the investors knowledge or agreement
• CG & IA allotted themselves 2,000,000 shares
• CG & IA changed the name of Sevco Scotland to The Rangers Football Club
• CG & IA appointed Cenkos as a nomad but failed to advise them of the source of funding through Sevco 5088
• CG & IA thereby raised £21,000,000 in the IPO by fraud
15. CW failed to provide police with mobile phone and laptop passwords, when requested, in breach of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act by police contrary to the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act
HH
an tearman
rubbish list.
Hebcelt
You are going to be one of Britain’s richest men.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3384724/2016-s-new-superfood-Black-pudding-Breakfast-staple-loaded-protein-iron-potassium-set-fly-shelves.html
JUNGLE JIM HOT SMOKED on 6TH JANUARY 2016 11:58 AM
Accrington Stanley? Playing Livingstone, I presume.
Oh No! :) por cierto
An Tearmann on 6th January 2016 12:03 pm
============================
Thanks for that cautionary list of miscreants, trouble-makers, trolls, and usual suspects of the shady-shiftiness realm.
I look forward to the list of upstanding Tims you’ll be compiling.
The good ship CQN listing all over the place????
An Tearnmann – Good to see someone is keeping a note of attendance!
Just got a pop-up for
Liverpool Car Parts
Do I have to supply the bricks?
HebCelt
Caught your lasses programme the other night,a great wee insight into football in a remote part of Scotland,
showed the rural community in a positive light in the way everyone chips in from ground maintenance to cups o tea and washing etc,maybe a wee graphic indent highlighting the distances travelled.Hope all is good up there,say hello to Benny
:-)
HH
Timbhoy3 no the guy in the Hoops was’nt my bhoy,the manager is a Tim but his assistant is a Sevoconian. We are fortunate in this part of Scotland where the tribalism is kept in check,there are brothers who are in opposite camps but it is not a problem – thankfully. The programme is available on BBC iplayer BBC Alba – Tusadhrusadh – Mon the West, I’ll post a link this evening. H H Hebcelt
SANDMAN
If yer not on RebelYell.com or in a CQN Annual,you won’t make the AT List of Listable People.
That’s because yer no’ in a clique. Which means KEVJ thinks the world of you. Which means you are in a clique.
So there you go. That’s Kilwinning logic for you,the town that brought you the fella who complained that though his much-missed brother was named on The War Memorial,he himself who fought long and hard,wasn’t.
Hebcelt,
I take it your daughter is married, as I couldn`t see anyone with the surname Hebcelt in the end titles. ;-0
An Tearrman thanks for that, Hrvatski Jim how do you know I’m not!!!! Methinks the black pudding thing is a slick PR exercise by the black pudding Mafia!!! H H Hebcelt
new article posted.
St Stivs,ah cheated,CQN annual1 :-) 2 and 3 might get an airing,
Sandman -That list would be empty shoorly :-)
Davidopoulos,see St Stivs abover :-)
HH
Billybear very droll, look at the last name on the credits, my regards to Mrs/Ms Bear. H H Hebcelt
Perhaps Stornoway and Clonakilty black puddings are super foods. But there is nothing super about English black pudding – pa-tooey…
Luckily my local supermarkets realise this a sell the proper stuff too.
KEVJUNGLE on 6th January 2016 10:39 am lennon’s passion
“Celtic FC should have threatened to quit the game and, to tell the ‘world’ why when…Rangers were offered a licence to start in Div 3…without being tried or, having paid a single penny back of the £140 million that they stole….imho…. ”
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KevJ -There lies one of the main issues. What is also galling is the attempt to say they are the same club by all unsundry.
I think the failure of Res12 should it pass ( hopefully not, but I am not convinced the clubs want it to succeed) and the apathy of the other clubs including Celtic will finish off a number of punters in our corrupt game.
I hope I am proved wrong
HH
CRC
BMCUW
I have no qualifications or experience which would help me to analyse the complex network of psychology and sociology in this or any other case of sexual abuse. I was pretty clear on that from the outset.
Those who have such qualifications: the Investigating Officer; the CPS’s Chief Prosecutor; the Prosecuting QC; and the Sexual Abuse Victim Support Specialist, all hold the same view that:
“There is no evidence that they were targeted because they were white. They were targeted because they were there.”
You are at liberty to apply a racial or ethnic filter to the circumstances of the case, and there are racial/ethnic circumstances to consider, but it’s a fraught practice, and apt to reinforce preconceptions rather than elicit insight.
An Tearmann – I forgive you.
BEEBAWBABBITY, St Eunans under-13s won the McGinley cup at Duntocher Hibs ground , have photo of the team, unortunately it was a few years after my time