LONDON FIRM TO LAUNCH BID FOR RANGERS MILLIONS
Specialists H&J take over companies with claims against newco and oldco
RANGERS could face multi-millionpound claims against their assets as the legal fall-out from the Craig Whyte era takes another twist.
A specialist London-based firm have taken control of Wavetower, the company Whyte used to acquire Rangers, and Sevco 5088, who were due to be struck off the Register of Companies.
It could signal bad news for both “oldco” and “newco” Rangers as Henderson & Jones specialise in buying legal claims and pursuing them through the courts.
Wavetower and Sevco 5088 both believe they have strong claims on liquidated assets and for assets held by the so-called “newco”.
Sevco 5088 are the firm ex-chief executive Charles Green used to acquire the club after Whyte’s disastrous ownership.
Henderson & Jones say they have a “team of expert litigators and insolvency professionals”.
Their website says: “Our combination of financial capital and in-house legal, insolvency and investigatory expertise mean we are well placed to robustly pursue litigation once a claim has been assigned to us.
“Because our business is dedicated to running a portfolio of legal claims, we streamline the litigation process, helping insolvency practitioners recover their costs and enabling us to pass more money back to creditors.”
H&J joined the board of Sevco 5088 in June. Days later, they were appointed directors of Wavetower, now re-named the Rangers FC Group – so both firms were secure on the Register of Companies.
H&J also joined the board of Law Financial, who hold security over Sevco. All the companies are owned by the Worthington Group – who are in liquidation – and are therefore subsiduaries.
H&J told the Sunday Herald they are working with Worthington’s liquidators Begbies Traynor to evaluate any claims the firms may have against “oldco” or “newco” Rangers.
The firm said Whyte has no involvement with any of the companies who could claim against assets or cash.
“Oldco” liquidators BDO are believed to hold around £30million in liquidated cash – making “oldco” a plumb target for creditors who lost out when Rangers went into liquidation.
Wavetower’s claim is based on an argument that they should be first in the pecking order for assets – even ahead of HMRC – because they paid off the £18million debt to Lloyds Bank when Whyte took over Rangers in May 2011.
The money was raised from London firm Ticketus, who bought up future Rangers season tickets.
But rather than leave the club solvent, Whyte had the debt transferred to Wavetower – meaning Rangers had spent £18million for no return.
The deal also gave Wavetower control of the floating charge against assets that Lloyds had previously had.
BDO are now set to pursue around 80 named individuals who benefited from the EBT tax-dodging scheme which brought Rangers to their knees.
At the High Court in Glasgow last month, Whyte was cleared of taking over the club by fraud in May 2011.
Rangers made no comment yesterday.