WHYTE’S PAL IS RAIDED IN GERS PROBE
Earley targeted in investigation over alleged £3million pension pot fraud
ONE of Craig Whyte’s closest business partners has had his home raided as part of an English probe involving the Rangers takeover.
Ex-bankrupt Aidan Earley revealed his mobile phone and computers were seized in a swoop by agents of the Financial Conduct Authority.
They are probing an alleged plot to defraud a pension pot of almost £3million to help fund Whyte’s disastrous buyout of the Ibrox club.
Earley has protested his innocence and insists that the pension cash has been repaid in full.
Whyte crashed Rangers into financial oblivion in 2012 but was cleared of taking over the club by fraud in a trial last year.
However, authorities down south could yet drag the Rangers fiasco back into the courts, with Whyte’s dealings with Earley’s Worthington Group coming under scrutiny. It is unclear at this stage if Whyte will be targeted by English investigators.
In a rambling post on his website, Earley said: “Yesterday morning I was treated to a full-scale home visit by the FCA.
“So, despite being under a cloud for the best part of five years and despite having been given advanced warning of the visit (so much so that I sent a text to myself to record the fact I knew it was coming the following morning) it was considered necessary to pay a ‘surprise visit’ and to take away phones, computers etc.”
The pension cash was “loaned” to Rangers oldco in 2011 by one of Whyte’s firms, Jerome Group.
But trustees for the fund later claimed the cash was released without consent. As owners of the fund, Earley’s Worthington Group have been under investigation by the FCA since 2016.
And Earley moaned: “Worthington was on the receiving end of a whole series of false allegations of fraud linked to the apparent guaranteed conviction of Craig Whyte for fraud in relation to Rangers.
“Consequently, it was falsely alleged that the Worthington pension fund was plundered in order to provide money to Rangers.
“That too turned out to be completely false with the money returned with interest and costs, with the money never having been at any risk whatsoever.”