NO CHEQUE CHECKS
Murray’s team didn’t vet Whyte, trial told
SIR David Murray’s team spent “nothing” doing checks on Craig Whyte, the High Court heard yesterday.
Whyte’s counsel Donald Findlay QC asked key Murray adviser David Horne how much was spent on “due diligence” on Whyte.
Solicitor Horne replied: “Not very much at all.” Findlay: “£20? More? Less? Horne: “I don’t know – possibly nothing.”
The witness then agreed when Findlay said: “That’s what was spent? Nothing?”
Horne added: “We took comfort that he had reputable advisers.”
Whyte is accused of fraudulently buying Rangers using a loan he got from ticket agency Ticketus in exchange for the rights to three years of season ticket sales.
Murray has told the trial that he would “categorically not” have sold his stake to Whyte if he had known where the cash was coming from.
But Findlay suggested to Horne that the Murray team wanted to sell “for the right reasons or not”, provided Rangers’ bank debt was cleared.
Horne said earlier in his evidence that he only learned about the Ticketus involvement in the deal after it had been done. Findlay suggested to him that “a whole range of people” knew about it.
Referring to Murray, prosecutor Alex Prentice QC asked Horne: “Would he have sold no matter what?” Horne replied: “No.”
Whyte, 46, also denies an offence under the Companies Act. The trial at the High Court in Glasgow continues.