Popular narrative would have you believe that Craig Whyte funded his period in charge of Rangers by using monies due to the tax authorities and other creditors as working capital, while securitising future season ticket sales to pay off bank debt and, perhaps, providing a small boost to working capital. This version of events now has to be revised.
As we know, Jerome Group plc Pension Fund, a company connected to Craig Whyte, made a claim for £2.95m on the £3.6m seized by the court from Colliyer Bristow’s client account last week. The money is currently held in the client account of Duff and Phelps solicitors pending a court decision on who is entitled to it, and is also subject to claims from HM Revenue and Customs and another company associated with Whyte, Merchant Turnaround.
Today, Worthington Group plc, who are investors in Jerome Group plc Pension Fund, issued a statement to the stock exchange confirming that they provided investment funds to Collyer Bristow’s client account “when considering the possibility of making a fully secured loan”.
It’s now clear that companies associated with Whyte had deposited some millions with a view to being loaned to Rangers, that such a loan would be secured and that Duff and Phelps claim this money to be Rangers’.
Worthington goes on to confirm Whyte owns 7.54% of their share capital through another of his companies and is not involved in the management of the business. They also confirm that Jerome Group “acted at all times in accordance with very detailed legal advice”.
This demonstrates that notions the security over Ibrox and other properties held by companies associated with Whyte can be easily dismissed are fantastic. This has all the hallmarks of a lengthy and expensive legal battle over Ibrox with several motivated protagonists.
The most interesting comment from Worthington Group today was that the Trustees of Jerome Group plc “now understand that the funds may have been the subject of an unauthorised release to the Club in breach of this undertaking prior to the Club entering Administration”.
Claims that an “unauthorised release to the Club” of £2.95m happened before it entered administration could have acute consequences for those who instructed the release and directors of the club at the time.
Never mind, all this is clear enough for Duff and Phelps to press ahead with a healthy sale of the club, even though the verdict of the First Tier Tribunal is yet to arrive and Ticketus ownership of future season tickets remains.
For a comprehensive rundown on how we got here, read Saturday’s article ‘Rangers, the biggest scandal in the History of Sport and the rest’, which includes gems like:
“Between 1997 and 2003 Rangers lost an eye watering £152.6 Million. Joe Lewis’ £40M was gobbled up in jig time, followed by £20M of Dave King’s tax efficient stash, plus a £32M investment by Murray’s business, £6M from smaller shareholders, and a further £15M of NTL’s investment in the hopeless Rangers Media venture. At its nadir in 2004, Rangers net debt was a staggering £83 Million, a monument to the ego of David Murray and his ‘dream’ for Rangers.”
Support Celtic-Hub’s drive to get the Thai Tims to Celtic Park by buying a tee shirt here.
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Rangers FC (In administration)
The saga that just keeps giving.
Long way to go yet….The fat lady who sings when all is done isn’t even in the building yet…she just got on the bus though!
Vigilance required….and we are The Bhoys for the job.
HH
sorry bhoys havent time this morning to look back at the posts whats leckie the hun hack on about celts losing titles .
jimtim
Lennondinho18
That’s impossible!
The first would be called NEWCO.
The second one would need to be called NEWCOCO.
;o)
Have the muddied affairs of a football club, or any company for that matter, ever been more opaque? Paul, as you note, a lot of lawyers are going to do very well unravelling the web of agreements, trusts, loans, covenants and guarantees that have been made. How anyone connected with RFCiA could countenance a change in ownership at this time, when the ownership of the assets (never mind the liabilities) connected with the club is totally beyond my simple mind.
In more good news – Great result yesterday – Onwards!
andycol is yet another Neil Lennon on 12 March, 2012 at 11:34 said:
”Statement re legal action by pension fund trustees to recover funds from the Administrators of Glasgow Rangers Football Club.
The trustees (” the Trustees”) of the Jerome Group plc Pension Fund (“Pension Fund”) have informed the Company that they are co-claimants in proceedings which have been brought in the High Court to determine the proper ownership of funds in the hands of solicitors acting for the Administrators of Glasgow Rangers Football Club (the “Club”).”
########
I wonder if there is any connection between this development and Gary Withey being mutually consented by Collyer Bristow.
Back to the vile Leckie piece. What sort of person uses child abuse as a means to make a cheap point in newspaper article?
Lowest of the low…
HH
savo01
These “investors” might have £25m but I’m struggling to see how a share issue will raise anything close to that. Take their previous share issue as an example:
They raised £51,430,995 broken down as follows:
Murray MHL Limited, a company controlled by David Murray, took its rights to 11,785,479 and subscribed for a further 38,489,521 shares – a total of £50,275,000.
New Shareholders – 1,263 raising a further £307,530.
Existing Shareholders – 3,237 existing shareholders raised an additonal £848,465
So overall, in 2004 when Rangers were in a much better financial state, the supporters ploughed in a grand total of £1,155,995 to the club.
Mort
Who was it who said
“you can fool all of the peepil all of the time but you cannot fool sensible people any of the time”
Oh, wait a minute, it was me.
O.G.Rafferty, ha! Yes, had an enjoyable chat with AT on Saturday evening. Really good guy with a refreshing attitude.
Steinreignedsupreme, yes, agree. Before it all kick off I had become increasingly sure that a phoenix would be difficult to achieve in any short timeframe. The Fog of War has caused confusion but this reality remains.
Aipple, of course. The FTT has been reduced to a side show. For now.
playfusbal4dguilders, what an excellent idea.
Larsson and McStay, aye, true.
Garngad to Croy, if the loan is secured against the stadium, liquidation gives the stadium to the lender.
JohnBhoy, there is nothing particularly unusual about Ticketus lodging money with Collyer Bristow before the takeover. They will still have been earning interest on it (paid by Collyers) and would probably have charged Whyte a fee.
Lennondinho, I reckon there is a reasonable chance we’ll see a couple of bidders to establish Newco.
ASonOfDan, true.
Poordeadking, cheers.
I think we are now seeing why Whyte wanted his own men Duff and Duffer on the inside.A trail of money would surely have been detected and made public within days.Week 4 and their collective game plan is still afloat.Can HMRC or any other creditor,try to get these clowns removed?
weeron on 12 March, 2012 at 12:14 said:
GiggsyBhoy on 12 March, 2012 at 12:15 said:
Cheers guys. The Banshee it is.
Afternoon bhoys from a sunkist hun free mountain.
Steinreignedsupreme on 12 March, 2012 at 12:09
Agree 100%
hamiltontim —–
The vile Leckie claimed that someone else had made that claim . Bog standard tabloid guff . Make up a story involving someone else telling you something ——it wasn’t me -it was him ..
It is what tabloid writers do !
So this pension fund in which Whyte has a stake is controlled by friends of his.
The pension fund is thinking about giving Whyte a loan, so it places funds in his solicitor’s account before finalising the decision, but asks him nicely not to touch the money until they give the go ahead?
Guess what? Whyte uses the money anyway. What a surprise that is!
Mort,
True but with their very existence and ‘dignity’ being threatened they can play on the heart strings and they have big fan base so I would not underestimate them. A lot of people were sick of Minty and know that issue was to coer debt this is a whole now ball game as Sky used to say!
BadaB
Duffer and Duffer are doing a grand job :>)))
Keep them there as long as possible, less chance of a newco
Paul67
‘Garngad to Croy, if the loan is secured against the stadium, liquidation gives the stadium to the lender.’
Not as such. The charge holder may end up with ownership if no one else bids for the asset but if there’s a bid that would clear the charge holder’s debt the charge holder gets their money and the bidder gets the asset.
By the end of this we will all be expert tax consultants!
HH
Burnley 78,
I prefer slow , arduous and with lots of false dawns.
Nothing better than seeing them crawl out of one cesspit, only to see another one – think of it as character building :-)
Paul67,
A serious Q : given the mess they are in , and that this other Murray was on the board during all of Minty’s shenanigans, and some of Whytes recent activities, would he pass a fit and proper test ?
The Big Blue Hoose becomes more like a whited sepulchre as each day passes. It makes you wonder what has still to come out.
HH
This latest pension thing….Whyte’s tactics remind me more and more of the Top cat title sequence and the coin on a bit of elastic.
savo01
Perhaps. £25m is still a lot extra to raise. On average the last share issue raised approx £250 per investor (excluding David Murray). Even if each doubled their investment to £500, 50,000 would need to sign up.
When Celtic floated in 1999, 5,300 subscribers bought shares.
Mort
TET-I know mate, but getting the impression they are burying bad news daily.
Paul67
just thought you needed some more work ;-)
keep up the great work
and thanks for the enjoyment
play
Afternoon
Good result and interesting article.
It appears D+P use of the media to manipulate there proposals is still ongoing although didnt seem to deter its intended target from being all over the media
Anyhow Paul one question. Why would an investment company transfer a “loan” prior to any firmed up agreement? seems bizarre or have i got that wrong
During my working life I had dealings with a couple of millionaires and they both had very sharp minds and were ruthless in ther pursuit of money that is how they became rich and they would not countanence loseing money on .any deal.Now Paul Murray would have us believe he and his blue knights have a few millionaires willing to assist his take over and invest millions in debt ridden Rangers now im a skeptic it goes against what the millionaires I knew would have done and the investing in a company who owe around 100 million and be unlikely ever to see a return strikes me as very unlikely I think its more smoke and mirrors.H.H.
You run a business that goes into Administration, you come out of it to find the administrator has allowed your employees to rewrite their contracts that they can walk away if you are in charge again.
Is that legal?
“I didn’t make it clear on Friday about this Craig Whyte clause,” said Clark.
“I should make it clear now. It’s not in everybody’s contract but there are a number of players who did want a clause that said something like, should Craig Whyte either retain or regain control of the club then they would be entitled to a free transfer.
“That’s in there for a number of them. More than a handful have that in their contracts, the ones who have most likely got value.”
Clashcitybhoy on 12 March, 2012 at 12:33 said:
The SFA’s rules say that one of the factors to be considered when assessing whether someone is a fit and proper person is if they have been a director of a club within five years of it suffering an insolvency event. I don’t think it amounts to a mandatory exclusion, just a factor to be taken into account.
No doubt though he’ll be a ludge member in good standing so will sail through.
WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN!!??
This rangers saga is quickly becoming incomprehensible, so many people saying so many different things!
So long as their still Donald Ducked then I’m happy! :)
Joe Lewis…don’t think he should ever have fought Rocky Marciano.
How much will the lawyers bill be to sort all this out?
As they don’t have enough assets to cover their liabilities at the moment, then when does it reach a stage where the plug has to be pulled…………….perhaps when the administrators realise they won’t get paid either?
Sorry if this has been posted but I am a bit of a late starter today…….
Kevin McKenna
The Observer, Sun 11 Mar 2012 00.04 GMT
Comment
My first appearance before a judge occurred in 1985 at the high court in Glasgow. Initially, it had caused me to fret somewhat. This was an attempted murder charge and, as I was only a few weeks into my first job, I could have done without it. As was normal for incidents such as these in my part of the world, drink, sectarianism and family disputes had first hijacked and then garrotted reason early on a summer evening in Baillieston.
After five days, the judge turned to me, thanked me for my labours and freed me from any further jury service any time soon. My fellow jurors and I had earlier taken refuge behind Scotland’s perceptive “not proven” verdict and granted the accused his liberty.
The five days of evidence, though, had been memorable and engrossing. For this daily matinee of free theatrical drama, we had two eloquent and urbane QCs playing at the top of their game to thank as they treated us to a tour de force of wit, knowledge and elegant sarcasm.
My next court appearance was quite a few years later in Edinburgh where I had popped in to watch a performance by Paul McBride QC. He was playing all week in the international City of Shortbread and had suggested that I come along and watch him in action. He had not long been raised to the Bar, reputedly the youngest in the UK to have taken silk, and I was eager to watch him at work.
I was earning my living in Edinburgh on the Scotsman and this seemed a better way of spending a lunchtime than giving elocution lessons to Edinburgh councillors in the Jinglin’ Geordie pub. While students, Paul and I had worked together at the Theatre Royal in Glasgow, after which he had followed the law and I had followed my conscience.
I was nervous for him that day as I had been informed that his stellar rise to the top of his profession had not encountered universal approval in the rheumy-eyed freemasonry of the Edinburgh legal establishment. I needn’t have worried, though, as it became clear early in the proceedings that here was a young man who thoroughly merited the garlands that were collecting at his feet.
Everything in his performance that day recalled the expertise of those old QCs duelling in a Glasgow courtroom 15 years previously. But he also seemed to possess an extra edge; be it a flash of verbal dexterity or a touch of charisma with which to charm a juror.
I was proud of him that day and have been proud of him often since. Last Sunday, though, he died in his sleep of natural causes in a Pakistani hotel bedroom.
He was 48 and was only just beginning to discover how big a player he could be in the political and cultural life of his beloved Scotland. My nation simply doesn’t possess very many people of Paul McBride’s high calibre and so his passing ought to be deeply mourned. He was one of the outstanding legal brains in this country.
So how to describe Paul McBride to those who have never met him? For starters, life was never dull when he was around and this was because he possessed a humanity that drew others to him. I could detail his compassion for all those whom he encountered in the course of his work or the spontaneous acts of kindness and charity that aided this cause or that victim in the course of a year.
But that wouldn’t begin to scratch the surface of his compassion.
His detractors were most often united by jealousy at his earning quotient or resentment at his public profile. And yes, there were a few times when I could have chibbed him myself, not least when he announced a few years ago that he was joining the Tories. “Don’t you know,” I told him, “that these bastards, if they had their way, would never have let someone from your background attain the position you possess today?”
Like many of us, though, he had become utterly disillusioned with the slow-motion car crash that the Labour party in Scotland had become in the early years of this century. I am glad to report, however, that in our last encounter, a week or so before he died, he admitted that he had ceased his wandering in the wilderness and was making ready to return to the side of the angels.
In the minds of most Scots, though, Paul McBride came to national prominence as he walked every step of the way with Neil Lennon last year. This was when the Celtic manager was being subjected to such widespread anti-Catholic bigotry that you wondered if we had stepped back in time to those days when there were more anti-Catholic societies in Glasgow than there were actual Catholics.
McBride became Lennon’s friend and lawyer and when the hatred was at its worst he appeared nightly on radio phone-in programmes as he attempted to reason with the gargoyles and the knuckle-draggers. For this intervention, he, along with Lennon and the former Labour MSP Trish Godman, were victims of a plot to murder them which is the subject of a trial at the high court in Glasgow. Paul’s fortitude, strength of character and morality during this ordeal were also characteristic of his life. I shall miss him terribly.
But my prayers are for his parents and for his partner, Gary. I hope that the pride and joy he gave them will, in time, help to wash away their tears. Requiescat in pace, Paul McBride, you were a beautiful and special man.
sixtaeseven
i like it lad ;)
Oh I, I just died in your arms tonight
There must have been something not paid
I just died in your arms tonight
I keep looking for something I can’t get
Broken hearts, they’re all around me
And I don’t see an easier way, to get out of this
His diary sits by the negotiating table
The curtains are closed, the cat’s in the cradle
Who would have thought that a boy like me could come to this
Oh I, I just died in your arms tonight
There must have been something not paid
I just died in your arms tonight
Oh I, I just died in your arms tonight
we must have been taking the p*ss
I should have walked away
I should have walked away
Is there any just cause for feeling like this?
On the surface I’m a name on a list
I try to be discreet, Jangle then blows me again
I’ve lost and found it’s my financial mistake
I´m trying by proxy, no give and all take
‘Cause I’ve been thrilled to fantasy, one too many times
Oh I, I just died in your arms tonight
There must have been something not paid
I just died in your arms tonight
Oh I, I just died in your arms tonight
We must have been taking the p*ss
I should have walked away
I should have walked away
He was a long shot knight, he made it easy
He made it feel right
But now it’s over, the moment has gone
I followed my hands to my head, I know I was wrong
Oh I, I just died in your arms tonight
There must have been something not paid
I just died in your arms tonight
Oh I, I just died in your arms tonight
We must have been taking the p*ss
I should have walked away
I should have walked away
Hail Hail
ASonOfDan,
What about looking at it from a creditor’s view?
If the administrators have saved a million a month then that’s a £3M saving. To do that they must have reduced the total asset value by more than that sum surely? So, should it come to liquidation, the amount to be shared out to creditors must be less?
The only defence I can see would be for them to argue that the deal makes the club continuing as a going concern or attracting a buyer more likely? And that would mean the creditors getting paid in the end.
Some hope!
A lovely mess.
Lashings and lashings of fabulously complicated legal stuff looms.
Might be easier to find a buyer than sort out who is entitled to sell..
No Parachute. No Newco .
How many secret handshakes will it take to save the Hun?
This could break some world record (not the Guinness one though)…is there any category for the “most simultaneous secret handshakes under a table in the world ever”?
BadaB
I agree they are sweeping things under the marble staircase at a rate of knots it’s hard to keep up with things, but Hector is watching them.
Hats off to CW, he has done them up like a kipper :>)