So you buy a business and then find that the entire structure and assets of company are subject to a police investigation, where it is alleged that the assets were criminal acquired. That’s a serious problem, but one which will take several years to manifest. Let’s call that Problem A.
Problem B is that you have also established that the business needs to raise cash. This is an acute problem which will manifest in a matter of months.
What’s the prognosis?
It could be 2018 before a verdict on Problem A, the criminal trial, is reached. If it’s not guilty, there are no consequences. If it’s guilty, the rightful owners of the criminally acquired assets can apply to the court to recover them. This doesn’t mean they will apply, but if they do, it’s highly likely that the court will make the award in favour of the rightful owners.
For our example, the rightful owners are creditors of a failed business, represented by a liquidator. It’s the liquidators job to get as much money for the creditors as possible, and in this instance, HMRC is the creditor with overwhelming influence.
There’s an added complexity. Although none of your directors are contaminated by the criminal investigation, there’s a concern that some of the accused are beneficiaries of shares in the company, or commercial contracts which the company has entered into. In short, the accused have left the stage, but they could still have a considerable financial interest in the success of the business, which may steel the resolve of the most influential creditor, HMRC. HMRC know such tactics well and would be reluctant to allow a convicted criminal to profit from their enterprises.
As far as Problem A is concerned, you have to allow the law to take its course and hope for a not guilty verdict. Should a guilty verdict transpire, you then have to hope to cut a deal with the liquidator (representing HMRC et al) to allow you to continue to retain title to the assets.
If the creditor was malleable, willing to come and go with you, this would be possible. Especially as the liquidator may have the opportunity of pursuing the professional indemnity (PI) insurance of some of the accused, who provided professional services relating to the transaction. Grab the PI money for the creditors and allow you, your shareholders, and the beneficiaries of your commercial contracts, to continue to benefit from ownership of the assets.
A great deal of uncertainty surrounds this, however. You would make it your business to get as close as possible to the liquidator. Make sure there’s no limit to the hospitality on offer, but ultimately, HMRC will decide how matters proceed. It may even be the case that PI money is pursued, and the assets are recovered and put on the market. There will, after all, be an eye-watering level of professional fees to cover.
Problem B is, as I said, more acute. Raising money for a business which is losing money and burning cash is difficult enough, but if there is a possibility the business has been built upon criminally acquired assets, the challenge is herculean.
The criminal trial may not conclude until 2018 (or later), and it could take a couple of years thereafter for the liquidator to petition the court for the assets and then dispose of them. In short, the assets could come back onto the market around 2020.
Problem B is for you to fund a trading deficit until 2018, then hibernate for a couple of years, and bid enough to buy the assets at auction in 2020.
In the short term all you can do is try to convince as many people as possible to become co-investors. Or put the money in yourself, of course (sorry, I know how you feel about that prospect). Then you could shower the liquidator with the kind of corporate hospitality illustrated in The Wolf of Wall St, and hope you’ve got enough credit with them to have them batting for you at the creditors’ meeting.
The prognosis? It’s not the fact that you are possibly trading with criminally acquired assets, or that your entire enterprise could be shut down with the drop of a sheriff’s gavel, that would worry me. There’s nothing you can do about that, so ignore it. The big worry is how raise the £25m to keep the lights on until you discover if you’re business’s founding fathers acted within the law.
Good luck with that.
This is an absolute minefield. No one is in control. Three years ago I suggested the best thing to do was to start from scratch at another location, this is the only way to proceed with certainty.
Share premises in Paisley, or Cowdenbeath or wherever will take you. Hope that you can carry some brand affinity (although clearly you’ll not be able to use any disputed IP, including brand names). Appoint reputable people to your board and get back to doing what you really want to do.
Behold to no one contaminated by the decades of misrule. Cut loose those who hold the onerous contracts. Allow the assets to come back onto the market in due course, knowing that by then you have all the customer goodwill you need to ensure there is no point in anyone bidding against you at auction.
The future will be nothing like the past, but at least you’ll have a future.
Celtic are the first UK club to react to the refugee crisis
“This is absolutely the right thing for us to do. Our club was formed by immigrants, many of whom had escaped the devastation of the great famine.” Tony Hamilton, Celtic FC Foundation CEO.
Proceeds from Sunday’s Jock Stein 30th Anniversary game will go to alleviating suffering of the refugees. The club will appoint a charity with expertise to ensure the assistance is productive.
I know we go on about the Foundation a lot, but it’s the most important part of our club, today and every day. Never let this change.
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I see fans who think our club should do better are being abused again
Facts at Michael platini threw out club a lifeline
The champions route. Where 80% of the clubs have a fraction of our support and income
But we have struggled as a team against these lesser clubs as those clubs are run mostly as football clubs
So up to our CEO and board to put a plan in place
What do they do. Put their hands up and say we can’t compete against the Malmö. Legia Warsaw and Maribors if the world
You can fool some of the people some of the time
Gordon64 on 6th September 2015 12:20 am
Sacking DD is a totally different proposition.
____________________________________________
Try it and see.
Ask him to run Celtic without, Celtic fans money and he wont need to be sacked, he’ll dump the club like a hot potato.
For them that keep telling us that negativity has no place here, remind me how that exact same attitude helped rangers ?
There is more chance of that exact attitude killing Celtic than the threat of spending a few bob on a decent player but them that refuse to question claim spending money can only lead to liquidation.
Downsizing the team has led directly to downsizing the crowd a vicious circle instigated by corporate greed rather than any strategy to save a successful club, the result of which is we have a failing club and a marginally successful Plc, a couple of years without Europe will put us in severe trouble less than the hun granted but brought on by too much downsizing.
So while the hun died reaching for the stars we will whither in the vine unless we get the balance right and IMO the balance is not right, the Plc are depending on blind loyalty rather than delivering the entertainment promised and has historically been served up even relatively recently. I’m begining to think Meil Lennon was moved on because another dose of downsizing was preferred and still we have the blind loyalty brigade telling people with concerns to take their negativity elsewhere just like the huns used to do.
Ooops Neil even
Morning all.
Hearing reports that a senior, female, Police Scotland officer has been charged with hurling sectarian abuse towards a junior officer who is a Celtic fan.
Shirley naw?!
HH!!
Tallybhoy,
Just banter
Good morning friends form East Kilbride where all things are bright and beautiful and the sunis streaming down from a cloudless sky.
Jobo B
When I lived in East Kilbride, I could look down along the wash-lines down consecutive back-gardens and stare in horror at the number of Rangers’ tops out drying.
Couldn’t get out quick enough.
The world`s leaders have responded to the tragedy of the drowned child on the Turkish beach.
The media is the message after all.
We must be seen to be doing something.
What was the suite of circumstances which resulted in the drowning of this child,his sibling and mother and the survival of his father?
Well. Just as horrifying., I`m sorry to say.
Much more mundane than the desperately sad flight of a family of refugees from Syria.
The aunt of the child has spoken.
It was more about dentistry than desperation.
If she is to be believed.
Which seems reasonable.
5.37am
At least you are still posting KevJ, your very long monikers and writing style are like a fingerprint
Hail Hail mucker
Hope everything is as well as it can be (still in my prayers)
Brisbane 67.
I’ve lived in EK all of my life. I’ve always felt it was a pretty even split between us and them. Assuming the 67 part of your name is your year of birth, which part of the town did you live in?
Canamalar
Any word on Res 12 ?
Jobo
Washing lines, today is a cracking drying day, as for Ranges (or Sevco now) thankfully they only appeared here when they were “walkin” as for Brisbane67 assertions, that meant they actually washed said tops…….
Yer kidding me on?
SENIOR police officer has been charged with a sectarian hate crime after an argument with a colleague.
Detective Chief Inspector Ruth Gilfillan, who leads Police Scotland’s Human Trafficking Unit, was arrested at work after she allegedly used sectarian language.
She has since been transferred from her base at the Scottish Crime Campus in Gartcosh, Lanarkshire.
Gilfillan has been posted to the force’s administrative headquarters in Glasgow’s Dalmarnock while waiting for the outcome.
It is not thought police have started disciplinary proceedings against Gilfillan, 43, but that would follow if the case results in a conviction.
One source said: “It appears to have started out as an argument about football and the allegation is that it went too far.
“DCI Gilfillan is said to have been having a discussion with a male detective constable who is a Celtic fan.
“It is claimed she used unacceptable language during the discussion.”
The force’s HumanTrafficking Unit targets modern day slavery and has swooped on firms suspected of using
smuggled workers.
Speaking this year about an initiative for landlords to help victims living under their roofs, Gilfillan said: “Trafficked people are forced to work in a number of ways including in hotels, as we saw recently, in
cannabis cultivations, in nail bars or in prostitution.”
The new Scottish Crime Campus in Glasgow.
A spokesman for the Crown Office said: “The procurator fiscal has received a report concerning a 43-year-old woman in relation to an alleged incident on August 20, 2015. The report remains under the consideration of the procurator fiscal.”
A Police Scotland spokesman said: “A 43-year-old woman has been charged following a complaint relating to an alleged incident and is the subject of a report to the procurator fiscal. It would be inappropriate
to comment further.”
Police Scotland have repeatedly stated their determination to tackle sectarian abuse and behaviour after anti-sectarian laws were introduced by the Scottish Government in 2011.
The controversial Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications Act has resulted in hundreds of people being arrested for alleged offences, mainly at matches.
Officers have been ordered to tackle sectarian singing and a list of banned songs has been compiled by the authorities.
But the new laws have been criticised and figures reveal conviction rates are just over 50 per cent.
Larssonse7en at 3.09
Exactly, as for Shug Keevins he masquerades as a journalist, more of a joke figure and on SSB plays up to his joke figure character, actually heard him once talking about Ricky Burns and he was brilliant, but when it comes to football (Celtic) his negativity knows no bounds !
The future ghost I’m not convinced DD is in it to make any dosh so whether we turn up or not is of little significance to him.
GERRYFAETHEBRIG on 6TH SEPTEMBER 2015 8:36 AM
Just been reading back, I prefer a Pint in Carsons, aye so I do…not…:)
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
MACJAY 1.
Alternatively – man is kidnapped and tortured. That torture included having his teeth removed. Relative in Canada sends man in Turkey money to pay for medical treatment to his mouth and get a pair of dentures.Man decides it is better to use the money to pay to get the hell out of Turkey.
Cue scumbags distorting that narrative and then disseminating a version which suits their agenda . Cue those with an interest in spreading the distorted narrative taking to the blogosphere.
Do you really believe that someone would subject themself and their family to the hell of a holding camp in Turkey and then put himself and his family in the hands of people smugglers for the sake of a pair of wallies ?
tonydonnelly67
So they transferred her to Gartcosh. WhY?
To be among her own where she wouldn’t offend anyone?
He has millions in his war chest, but he doesent need it, why? Well because he is just to good, manager of the year, and it’s only September.
Warburton had the funds to strengthen his squad last week but opted against it with Gers flying high at the top of the Championship table.
He’s adamant he won’t spend the Ibrox board’s cash unless he has good reason.
Instead, he’ll evaluate what he’s got in January as the club set their sights on promotion to the Premiership.
Warburton said: “I wasn’t tempted to spend at all on Tuesday. We’re pleased with our early permanent signings.
“The plan was always to get them in before going to the loan market. Thankfully that’s worked out really well.
“Our focus is now on January and we’ll look at how the squad shapes up over the next few months. We’ll have players lined up as and when we need them.
“Any manager has to have the trust of the board. So why spend money when you don’t need it?
“The unity is good and one bad apple can upset that.
“You have a better chance as a coach now if you show prudence and seek value. If you’re wasteful with the money it will come back to haunt you.
“If we thought there was a seven-figure player who was available, and who would add value to us on and off the pitch, we’d go and ask the board.
“But right now the balance is good. We’ve spent money wisely and hopefully that can continue.
“If you splash the cash and get a better quality of player in, you have to do it. Because your job is to pick the best team available. But there are good players who don’t cost fortunes. It comes down to your knowledge and contacts.
“Very often it can be a disaster. But if you get it right seven times out of 10 you’re doing well.”
VALE BHOY on 6TH SEPTEMBER 2015 8:56 AM
Yes of course, safety in numbers in a safe house…..pathetic if you ask me. Next big story on her will be how wonderful an officer she is and they will wheel out a Celtic supporting cop (soup taker) to tell you how he/she has never seen that side of her, and to say they had banter many times about the old firm, but nothing serious, blah blah blah.
Morning Bhoys still bickering I see. The best fans in the World I think not,there is no tolerance for each others point of view. There will always be different opinions in football that is one of the joys of the game there will negative opinions and there will be positive opinions which is which will be decided by the reader. These opinions make for a good debate and at the end of any such debate we should respect all who are debating it is not necessary to agree with them but remember everyone is entitled to an opinion. H.H.
SoT,
I doubt you’ll get a response, his MO is to be quiet for a few days and return hoping no one remembers propaganda that makes refugees into migrants creating fear and resentment.
It’s how they work.
Lennybhoy
I know you prefer the “office” I had forgotten I posted about Carsons, I thought you would have replied last night, by the way it’s the only boozer in Coatbridge I have never stepped foot in, have been in Creighton street twice, wedding & funeral but thankfully never stepped foot in Carsons !
JFH,
Looks like a complete uturn for you, your usually at the vanguard of telling people who don’t share your view to go find another team and blog, good to see you join the age of debate.
I caught Shortbread on the way home last night. That wee ban dished out by the huns pulled them into line alright. Rob McLean going out his way to enforce the same club myth and that Warbo has bettered Struth etc.
The night before it was Chic Young. Apart from Willie Miller and the other Aberdeen supporter show host geezer, they’re all at it now.
Some Beeb boss has probably been pulled aside at a Monday night meeting and told to ‘circulate this email to all football reporting staff’.
Different club, new club, whatever. Still a law unto themselves for over 100 years, backed to the hilt by the bent powers that be.
Makes you wonder how Celtic ever got to be the dominant force in Scottish football. Some feat in this place
Owen Jones on the Andrew Marr show talking alot of sense.
Morning all.
Clouding over down here. A wee nip in the air too. Summer over before it began? Looks like it.
Some people on here seem to think our season is over before it has properly begun.
Heaven67…,
Auldheid is putting together a complete run down of everything that’s happened and will be posting links to it soon.
We are trying to trace all the original supporters for contact details, email addresses preferably, quite a few did not have or identify an email address.
As usual there is very big news in the pipeline but as Auldheid said before legalities are taking most of the time, good news is that the Plc are still fully supportive and helpful.
Marrakesh Express
Someone at the BBC got a serious knuckle rap for that at a lodge meeting, it has help a brother out paw mark all over it, pathetic actually, keep the hoards happy, don’t upset them ffs.
Carsons??!!!
FFS guys – do you mind?!! Some of us are still at the breakfast table!!
NATKNOw
Aye. They don’t even dish out communion wine at St Joseph’s. 8(
I’ll just go straight to the Parkville
Point of info please.
Tic mate got into an argument with a sevconian who claimed only PL skullduggery sank them cos they departed the top league prior to liquidation. Ergo being flung out the league is what confirmed their demise.
Can one of the many experts on here give me a couple of definitive lines I can pass on.
Thanks in advance
HH jamesgang
JAMESGANG
Why not punch some sense into the choob,because educating him is doomed to failure.
Jg,
It doesn’t matter what league your in if you qualify for Europe, and finishing second in the year they went into liquidation, they would have went Ito Europe had they not been put into liquidation it’s really simple. Lawwell did not stop them getting the European place liquidation did.
Big Jock & Shanks.
The H Bombs of tactics, and Wit.
Never will I see there likes again, and yet two of the most humblest men you will ever meet, no one picked up the mantle after they left us, we have been cocooned ever since, such a shame really.
Joe Filippis Haircut on 6th September 2015 9:09 am Morning Bhoys still bickering I see. The best fans in the World I think not,there is no tolerance for each others point of view. There will always be different opinions in football that is one of the joys of the game there will negative opinions and there will be positive opinions which is which will be decided by the reader. These opinions make for a good debate and at the end of any such debate we should respect all who are debating it is not necessary to agree with them but remember everyone is entitled to an opinion. H.H. – See more at: http://www.celticquicknews.co.uk/prognosis-for-trading-with-criminally-acquired-assets/comment-page-26/#comments
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Great post JFH, the worst culprits are on Kerrydale Street, you honestly cannot say anything against the Tic (who we all love and support) for fear of getting your account suspended. They are every bit as bad as the Hun.
At least thats the one I find them lost for answers on when asked.