bluebear54 0 Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 (edited) Money for nothing: Whyte used £24m Ticketus deal to pay off bank By John McGarry Last updated at 11:04 PM on 20th February 2012 Craig Whyte sold off four years of Rangers season tickets — one month before he bought the club. The embattled owner flogged the seats to London-based Ticketus to fund his entire takeover last April — four weeks before he persuaded Sir David Murray to sell up for just £1. Sportsmail can reveal Whyte convinced Ticketus to advance him £24.4million on the proviso that he would then buy Rangers. That cash was deposited into a client account with his London-based lawyer Collyer Bristow on April 7. Whyte then showed Murray that balance as evidence he had sufficient funds to give Lloyds Bank the £18m they were owed — one of the key conditions of the sale. He then bought Murray’s 85.3 per cent shareholding for £1 on May 6, paid off Lloyds and used Rangers employees’ personal tax — which should have been handed over to HMRC — to help run the club. Until it ran out and forced administration eight days ago, that is. Had Murray refused to sell to him, Whyte would have returned the money to Ticketus — a gamble he was prepared to take. The latest revelation means that Whyte, who stayed away from the first post-administration game against Kilmarnock on Saturday, effectively bought into the club for nothing before installing himself as the ‘preferred creditor’. It is widely assumed he will never attend another game at Ibrox and there are now questions marks over that ‘preferred creditor’ status. Strathclyde Police are examining files pertaining to Whyte’s nine-month tenure, which were handed to them by former chairman Alastair Johnston. The SFA have also launched a full inquiry into Rangers in a move that was welcomed by manager Ally McCoist at the weekend. The ruling body claim to have been hampered in their efforts to establish if Whyte fulfils the ‘fit and proper person’ criteria. Rangers are now 17 points behind Celtic in the SPL after receiving an automatic 10-point deduction. The Ibrox club plunged into administration last Monday and, three days later, the administrators revealed they had ‘no visibility’ of the Ticketus money in the football club’s account. The announcement came despite Whyte previously insisting that ‘every penny’ of the money had gone into the running of the club. Two weeks ago, the embattled owner also claimed to have sunk £33m of his own money into the club. It emerged that lawyers Collyer Bristow had handed ‘significant information’ which provided ‘some visibility’ on the whereabouts of some of the cash. An £18m payment was made from the account to Lloyds on May 9 — three days after the takeover went through, but it is still unclear where the remaining £6.4m is. Exactly how much of the £6m proceeds from the sale of Nikica Jelavic to Everton landed in the club’s account is also unknown. Last Thursday, joint administrator Paul Clark said: ‘Some of it is deferred. Some of the funds appear to have gone into the club — but we need to go through the detail.’ There is also a question mark over what security Ticketus now hold for their part in the April deal. Were Rangers to be liquidated, the firm would have no obvious means of re-selling the seats they have bought between now and 2015. Financial experts believe it is inconceivable that they would have agreed to advance such a huge sum without a safety net. Whyte’s credibility among the Rangers support is at an all-time low. When news of imminent administration broke last Monday, he initially said he had been left with no alternative due to the so-called ‘big tax bill’ which the embattled owner claimed could cost the club £75m. However, when the application was heard in the Court of Session, that story was exposed as a fallacy. The real reason the club had been forced into administration was down to the fact that £9m in VAT and PAYE had been unpaid. Duff & Phelps believed that this had been used for the day-to-day running of the club. Just a week before administration, Whyte’s evidence was called ‘wholly unreliable’ by a sheriff after a civil case. As players and staff at the 140-year-old club brace themselves for job cuts on Tuesday, the whereabouts of the 41-year-old Motherwell-born businessman were last night unknown. He avoided the Kilmarnock match, claiming he was ‘taking a backwards step’. Here's the link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2104025/Craig-Whyte-used-24m-Ticketus-money-pay-bank.html#ixzz1mxzl4HzQ Edited February 20, 2012 by bluebear54 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluebear54 0 Posted February 20, 2012 Author Share Posted February 20, 2012 If this is true - and the Mail would be stuffed if it isn't, then I think Whyte's in deep doodoo. Brings into question the validity of the takeover and the role (or non-role) of the SFA.Is it criminal anyone? 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forlanssister 3,062 Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 It emerged that lawyers Collyer Bristow had handed ‘significant information’ which provided ‘some visibility’ on the whereabouts of some of the cash. An £18m payment was made from the account to Lloyds on May 9 — three days after the takeover went through, but it is still unclear where the remaining £6.4m is. That seems to be the killer part if the money went straight from Ticketus to Collyer Bristow to Lloyds then that is "Financial Assistance" and all bets are off. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluebear54 0 Posted February 20, 2012 Author Share Posted February 20, 2012 That seems to be the killer part if the money went straight from Ticketus to Collyer Bristow to Lloyds then that is "Financial Assistance" and all bets are off. If that's correct FS, surely he's not that stupid? 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craigy1881 79 Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 That makes for depressing reading, I can't quite think about this just now so off to bed. Another day of shite ahead tomorrow then 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrahimHemdani 1 Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 (edited) I've said this on here several times in the past few weeks: 18 + 6 = 24, but I don't think anyone believed me; the Mail must have seen a bank statement or some other document proving it, that's all. On the 18th: £18M to pay off LBG. The other £6m was for Murray's shares and despite all that's said about him on here, as you know he declined and took £1. The £6m may have gone to pay the defiicit with Ticketus or been used for working capital. Whyte used the fans' own money to buy the Club, clever eh! The other £6M was going to Murray for his shares and then he agreed to accept the £1 so that the £6M could either be used to pay back Ticketus for 2010/11 or as working capital. Whyte is a supreme conman; effectively he bought the club by mortgaging the next three years' season ticket money and using it to pay off Lloyds. Lloyds are complicit as well, of course; it is obvious they didn't care where the money came from. Edited February 21, 2012 by BrahimHemdani 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zappa 0 Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 If it's proven that he's told yet more lies and did indeed use the Ticketus cash to pay Lloyds, does anyone know what is likely to happen? 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
aftershock 0 Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 This definitely seems most likely scenario. Just can't understand how he thought he would get away with it. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrahimHemdani 1 Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 If it's proven that he's told yet more lies and did indeed use the Ticketus cash to pay Lloyds, does anyone know what is likely to happen? If it is proven that he lied by saying that he used his own or his company's money to pay off Lloyds and that was not true then he will certainly fail a fit and proper test for being dishonest, so wouldn't be allowed to own the Club. Exactly how the SFA would deal with that is probably causing Mr Regan nightmares right now. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
aftershock 0 Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 But would that be a situation where liquidation could happen BH or is that not connected to Whyte not being 'fit and proper'? 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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