HMRC have confirmed their actions today leave open “potential investigation and pursuit of possible claims against those responsible for the company’s financial affairs in recent years”.
Chances are, HMRC will investigate the actions of SFA president, Campbell Ogilvie, more thoroughly than the investigation carried out by the Association which allowed their chief executive, Stewart Regan, to tell the media that:
“We are all aware of businesses being run where you have one owner and operator running the club and a number of directors sitting below. The way this process has been managed, a lot of this correspondence was done much higher up the chain than Campbell Ogilvie.”
Stewart (if I can be familiar), you’re better than this. Try reading this story one page ahead, figure out where this one is going and start acting accordingly. Of course, President What-school-did-you-go-to then told Scotland on Sunday:
“I might have signed some documents from time to time”.
Mr Regan had better make sure he knows what Mr Ogilvie signed, and I recommend he doesn’t relay exclusively on Mr Ogilvie’s memory.
Untenable
“Those responsible for the company’s financial affairs in recent years” includes Mr Ogilvie throughout his period as a director of Rangers. His position has been untenable for months and his continuing presence at the top of the Scottish FA only further contaminates those who claim otherwise.
The former directors of Rangers will not be the only ones alarmed at this development, recipients of EBTs (including the directors, who will have a second matter to consider) have reason to be concerned.
Not only do Her Majesty’s officers want any potential wrongdoing investigated, they also want their money.
Rangers EBTs were a loan. HMRC will tell recipients of this loan that their side letters (you better believe they’ll all find those side letters now) are not worth the paper they’re written on. If the money was indeed a loan, a demand for repayment will be made. If this is disputed, you can expect to hear the phrase Gratuitous Alienation to enter the lexicon soon. Gratuitous Alienation is the Scots legal term describing when property (or cash) is transferred to another party without any, or adequate, consideration.
I hear HMRC have all their ducks lined up for this one.
Internecine strife doesn’t begin to describe how things will end up.
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Oh happy day
FIREWORKS 10PM FRIDAY
PASS IT ON
:-)
that is all……..no wait!
I’m really happy so here’s another one….
:-)
Hail hail
MME
I can’t make up my mind which beer to celebrate with. Will it be Cobra or will it be Kingfisher? One thing is for sure I am going to enjoy one of those Liquid Asians ;-)
I’ll leave now.
Hail! Hail! PMTYH
and a brilliant read here.
http://blogs.channel4.com/alex-thomsons-view/rangers-taxman-walk/1899
Happy Liquidation day.
Rangers, like their songs and values, are now out of date.
I am most happy that they didn’t find a way out. The confirmation of them as the people would have been too much to take. But now the attempts at concealment and denial haven’t worked when they may have done in a previous time.
I think essentially, Rangers as they were, with their practises, handshakes and arrogance, couldn’t survive in a modern world.
I think the SFA will soon find similar.
oh mammy daddy
the air is so full of joy that turkeys are looking nervous
it’s beginning to look a lot like…
For the first day in years my H*n filled work is a wonderful place to be
Rubbing it in big time CSC
The real war is over .
Tomorrow the war of rhetoric begins:-
To paraphrase Devo
Are we not Gers?
We are defunct
It just gets better and better….Please say there is more to come, Paul67.
The gift that just keeps on giving just keeps on rolling along.
:-)
Regan has no balls. He proved in on referee-gate when he first signed on, setting out his marker for ball-less rule. It is no surprise he is once again showing his lack of balls. He needs to follow the other rats off the ship, at cutlass-point if necessary …
The Evening Times is having real difficulty in admitting that the Fat Lady has sung. Hardly a word on the bears demise.
Poor wee shame.
Has Ogilvie resigned yet?
Gratuitous Alienation is like a new signing – Mark Hateley
let’s make sure their history is now at an end and any newco starts from scratch
This new post – it means liquidators and/or investigators can call in the loans?
I asked about this once before and I think the feeling was that since the money is transferred to a trust who then administer the loans, then it was out of creditors/liquidators reach.
Is that not the case then? Oh please let them be able to go after the loans……
Oh Happy days…..
Paul,
see below– today is a very VERY bad day for Murray & Co– and given the statement from HMRC Campbell should vacate his post.
Given Regan’s statement, Ogilvie may well be Rangers “Deepthroat” who can give further statements that point the finger at wrongdoers with the most culpability.
———————————————————————————————————–
Good Afternoon.
Amidst all the furore about the most recent twist in the Ibrox Saga, there will be a small group of men in their resopective toilets regularly pulling the chain to get rid of involuntary mess.
Forget for a moment what the statement from HMRC means for Rangers Football Club– and by the way I don’t think it means that there will be a sale to Charles Green— it sends a clear message to the former Directors of Rangers PLC that in the course of Liquidation, the Liquidator will be funded and indeed instructed to pursue former Directors personally in connection with their mismanagement of the Club.
This will not be limited to Craig Whyte and his team, but will, I believe, extend to David Murray and the others who sat on the board of Directors throughout his Stewardship of Rangers.
For that litigation to mean anything– and as a matter of practice in any event— a full report will have to be prepared as to exactly why Rangers PLC has failed and who if anyone was responsible for such failure. Such a report will scrutinise the behaviour of the Directors and will focus on their business practices and policies.
When Directors ought reasonably to have known that their business was in danger of failing, then they automatically and by law assume a duty to govern the business for the benefit of the CREDITORS as opposed to the SHAREHOLDERS, and to ignore that duty is to leave yourself liable to the forces of the law.
Accordingly buying players on Credit at a time when you would be struggling to pay that Credit must be viewed as questionable practice. Buying players and paying them at a time when you should have been paying or making provision for legitimate taxes instead– is not in the interest of creditors.
Deliberately ignoring advice on proper tax management, with the result that the company remains in, or descends into, an impecunious state cannot be condoned.
The misuse of a tax avoidance scheme to the detriment of Creditors…. well it goes without saying.
The presentation of documents (to any official body) which purports to represent the full financial position with regard to renumeration and contracts, whilst all the time knowing that there are in existence other financial, contractual and business related documents which paint a completely different picture, and which grant an indemnity to certain parties should certain taxes become due as a result of these very documents……… smacks not only of mismangement of the business against the interests of the creditors, but the deliberate attempt by the Directors of misrepresenting the true facts to the powers that be….. and to creditors, and shareholders.
Now is not the time for an indepth discussion of the relevant sections of the Insolvency Act, Companies Act or the provisions surrounding the grounds for disqualification of Directors– that has been discussed before, and no doubt will be discussed again once the detail of the BTC judgement is released and considered— but this morning’s statement gives fair warning of the approaching Tsunami that is the taxman.
The tax Tsunami brings a football Tsunami in its wake.
Tsunami’s by their very nature take with them the unwitting and the blameless in many respects, who just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time– or in this case who just happen to do absolutely nothing and who say the wrong thing at the wrong time.
We have already seen from the Judgement written by Gary Allen QC that “doing nothing” is not an option in the world of Corporate Governance, and the Pontius Pilate act in the board room will meet with condemnation and criticism when examined externally and tested.
Only days ago, we have heard from Stewart Regan, that the SFA Board are fuly satisfied with the conduct of Campbell Ogilvie during his time at Rangers, and that the same SFA board have had a full disclosure of the facts as Ogilvie knows them. This has allowed them to publicly state ( through Regan ) that if there was any wrongdoing at Ibrox, then that wrongdoing was conducted by others who were far higher up the command chain within the Ibrox inner sanctum.
Ogilvie, in his public statements, would say only that player contracts and payments, EBT Administration and all other such matters were the responsibility of, and under the control of, “whoever dealt with the financials” or some such similar phrase.
It is now clear from the HMRC statement that all of the former Directors… and anyone who could be deemed to be a shadow Director ( and shadow directors are not anywhere close to be being beyond a possibility in this case ) is to be investigated and potentially held liable.
Effectively HMRC have today openly said that amongst others, Campbell Ogilvie will be investigated and along with others will potentially be held liable for Rangers losses. In such court actions Directors ( or shadow Directors ) can be asked to make a contribution towards those debts.
This completely and utterly compromises the President of the SFA. Regan and his cohorts had better strap themselves in and be very VERY sure that they have covered themselves in the eyes of UEFA and indeed FIFA because if they have a serving President who is even the subject of a claim by national tax authorities, then that suggests that the game has been brought into disrepute especially if it is proven that he lied and continues to lie whilst a serving officer.
There is a clear conflict of interest, as the SFA would have to take cognisance of any court finding that ultimately results.
Further, many of the former players– who are very VERY rich men– will be shown to have a completely useless indemnity against sums due by way of tax. Do not think for a second that HMRC will not rattle cages in connection with the sums that they deem to be due. I suspect that they will threaten players with the result that some players will cough up. Such a course of action makes sense when the indemnifying company is bust, and it sends a clear message to all footballers and their agents— EBT’s are finished in football!
I was told two years ago that this is one of the very real messages that HMRC want to get out as a result of the Rangers Tax Case.
Equally, any former board Members who may just have had a similar type of guarantee and indemnity from Murray International Holdings may well find themselves in a similar situation.
The statement from HMRC today– and the very specific reasons given for reaching their decision, takes this fiasco into a whole new realm, and for some a very dark place.
It would appear that HMRC don’t do walking away.
Wee Dawwell has been talked down from the window ledge and will be on SSB @ 6.
I can’t tell you how happy I am, touched down in London earlier my phone started bleep bleeping … and then … well safe to say anyone in or around Stansted Airport would have heard me (and not a mic in site)!!
It was one of those hug a stranger day – the young chap at Enterprise Car Hire was a tad bemused until I shared the reason for my joy!
Thanks for all your hard work Paul67 enjoy your night bhoys and ghirls
Paul,
I think I might love you ……………………….in a manly, love-liquidation sort of way, of course !
Could this day get any better !
Paul,
Great work as ever,looks like Mr Regan will have a decision to make very shortly..
of topic seems to some serious trouble between poles and russians fans, according to some tweets.
So this is just the beginning?
That was proof there how good Scottish Refs are, Collum would have seen that, at least if it was in the Celtic box he would.
All past Rangers directors will be Astounded of Forehead at this news
Hello estate agents, billy dodds here, how much will I get for my Cumnock mansion? Is that right! Can i give your number to nacho?
IcansmellshiteCSC
Regan is Nero, fiddling while Scottish football burns.
Gratuitous Alienation? I always wondered what G.A. stood for in Kojo’s posts…..
Commentator says ‘ref had his back to play and can’t give the foul’
Utter rubbish. Of course you can give a foul/penalty when your backs to the play.
What is it with these fools who know nothing about soccer
brimmer
STV journalists saying Rangers can dump all their debt yet continue as a football club with their 100 odd year history intact.
Telling people they are “wrong” to suggest otherwise.
http://sport.stv.tv/football/105857-…w-for-rangers/
Ding Dong the witch is dead.
Firstly, sheer joy, and then thinking of those who never saw this day. Here’s to them.
Who knows what will happen tomorrow, to echo the final sentence of the article and I have speculated for weeks that there will be no thems next season. Whatever. It’s a lovely day.
“His position has been untenable for months and his continuing presence at the top of the Scottish FA only further contaminates those who claim otherwise.”
You sometimes come up with an absolute cracker of a sentence, Paul :-)
Bit worried about your comment about ducks, though.
Collum is now a Fifa elite listed referee btw
Czech R pinging the ball about nicely, doing a nice impersonation of Celtic so far. 2-0 CR for those interested, 30 min gone.
Paul
The first domino has fallen. The rest are about to go in pretty quick succession methinks.