All Whyte on the night
6 years after Rangers were bought with £18m of season ticket cash, a jury rule there was no fraud and no one is held responsible for club’s collapse
BEAMING Craig Whyte breezed out of court yesterday and into a posh restaurant after he was cleared of a fraudulent takeover of Rangers.
The man who plunged the club into administration was found not guilty at the end of a seven-week
THE Whyte trial painted a picture of Murray Group desperately trying to sell Rangers as part of Project Charlotte – instigated by their bankers to flog failing companies.
And it is reckoned bankrupt Whyte, who lived it up in Monaco and did multi-million-pound deals, got £400,000 in legal aid.
Project Charlotte – named after Murray Group’s Charlotte Square address in Edinburgh – was instigated by Lloyds Bank to flog Murray firms who owed them hundreds of millions of pounds.
At times it seemed as if Sir David Murray was on trial, not Whyte.
The bank wanted to cut their losses and selling Rangers would at least recover £18million.
The trial pitted Murray against Whyte – with Murray’s former vice-chair at Ibrox, Donald Findlay QC, defending Whyte.
The Crown had to prove that Whyte had committed fraud in his buy-out and that he had used the club’s assets to fund the deal. In a deal for £1 for Murray’s shares, that was never going to be easy.
Prosecutors had to show that Whyte had failed to keep promises he made to pay the small tax case bill and invest in the team.
And there was no victim, which prosecutors accepted was unusual at pre-trial hearings.
The case did not get off to a good start for the Crown. On day one, ex-Gers boss Ally McCoist said he had never claimed Whyte had starved his team of investment. Findlay told McCoist: “No, you didn’t but others are trying to.”
When former Rangers finance chief Donald McIntyre was crossexamined by Findlay, a picture emerged of a club living almost hand-to-mouth, using ticket firm Ticketus to provide up-front cash by flogging them briefs on a season by season basis.
McIntyre said the Ticketus deals had never been revealed to fans as there was no requirement for them to be included in Rangers’ books. But Findlay was persuasive in referring to the season-long deals as “secret”.
His narrative was that Rangers were being “squeezed” by the bank, forcing the sale at any price.
McIntyre said: “They were threatening to withdraw the bank facilities if the independent board did not sanction the transaction with Craig Whyte.” Findlay said: “If that’s not the bank wanting out, what is it?”
McIntyre said: “It is the bank saying that they wanted the transaction with Craig Whyte to go through.”
Murray’s evidence, and that of his right-hand man Mike McGill,
will have left Rangers fans livid. Murray claimed he had no idea Whyte was financing the deal to repay the club’s £18million debt by flogging future season tickets to Ticketus.
McGill claimed the same. Both men said they would never have made the deal had they known. Yet a copy of the share purchase agreement shown in court stated that finance was coming from Whyte and a “third party”.
Murray said he had “no relationship” with Whyte, yet texts between both men were shown in court and details of a lunch in Monaco were referred to.
The texts and the lunch had happened after it became common knowledge that Whyte had used Ticketus to fund his takeover. Had Murray suddenly realised he had been lied to by Whyte, he never brought up the subject or complained to Whyte.
Pressed by Findlay, Murray said he couldn’t explain why he had never raised the issue with Whyte.
He said he had been more interested in trying to force Whyte to invest £5million a season in the team, as per the agreement.
Findlay said: “So at the very least of it there appears to have been contact between you and Mr Whyte, and likely as not telephone contact …
“On the face of that, Sir David, it would appear that … when you discovered about the Ticketus deal, there was contact between yourself and Mr Whyte, is that not right?”
Murray said: “I don’t know why I’ve not mentioned it for some reason, I don’t know why Ticketus has not been mentioned for some reason.”
Murray was forced to admit that despite Whyte supposedly duping him, the men had a cordial relationship.
Findlay also revealed that while other shareholders had been informed that Murray – like them – would not benefit from the deal, he had been allowed to buy back back his firm Murray Metals on the condition that Rangers’ debt being cleared.
McGill was placed on the Rangers board by Murray to make sure budgets were kept to.
He admitted that despite wanting to preserve Murray’s “legacy” at Rangers, Murray Group had not even bothered to carry out due diligence on Whyte.
At one point McGill suggested the Press could have done this, rather than Murray Group.
His evidence also pointed to Murray Group pressuring the independent committee set up by Rangers to scrutinise any deal.
McGill admitted the committee could not prevent the deal going through and admitted discussions about possibly having to sack board members on the committee if they would not agree to the deal.
A legal expert said: “Well done to Craig Whyte for qualifying for legal aid, though the taxpayer may not share that view.
“A case of this nature, with a top QC like Findlay and months of research, would have cost around £400,000.”