Ex-Rangers chiefs in court charged with ‘international’ fraud
FORMER Rangers bosses Craig Whyte and Charles Green have appeared in court charged with conspiring to commit major i nternational f raud during takeovers of the club.
The pair appeared at the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday to face charges that they, with others, embarked on a course of criminal conduct in their time at Rangers.
Former owner Whyte, 44, and four others are accused of seizing control of Rangers through fraudulent means in an alleged scam that spanned Scotland, England, Monaco and France.
It is claimed they illegally got millions of pounds from ticketing firms to convince the sellers they should be allowed to buy Rangers for £1.
Ex- chief executive Green, now 62, faces allegations of conspiring to buy the football club out of administration on the cheap.
The two appeared in court alongside David Grier, 50, David Whitehouse, 50, and Paul Clark, 51.
Prosecutors allege the five men joined 51-year-old Gary Withey – who was excused from attending court – to embark on a course of criminal conduct at the Glasgow club. The process
‘Conspiring to buy the club’
to bring the six men to trial began with yesterday’s procedural hearing.
Prosecutors claim that between January 2010 and February 2012, in Scotland, England, France and Monaco, Whyte, Withey, Grier, Whitehouse and Clark conspired to ‘acquire and obtain by fraud a majority and controlling stake in the shareholding of Rangers’.
It is claimed they illegally obtained £28,262,094 from companies Ticketus and Merchant in a season ticket deal, then used the money to persuade Rangers that they could afford to take the club over and clear its debts.
A second charge involves Whyte and Withey, a company called Wavetower Ltd, and a debt the club owed to the Bank of Scotland.
It is also alleged that on May 20, 2011, at the SFA, Mr Whyte concealed the fact that he had been a disqualified company director, in order to prove that he was a ‘ fit and proper’ person.
A fourth charge alleges that between December 13, 2010, and January 31, 2012, at the club’s Ibrox Stadium and various locations in Scotland, England and continental Europe, all the men except Green did something that might ‘enable or further the commission of serious organised crime’ in fraudulently acquiring a majority stake in Rangers.
A fifth alleges that in 2012 administrator Whitehouse & Clark attempted to pervert the course of justice involving a false claim that administrator Duff & Phelps knew nothing of the Ticketus arrangement.
It is also alleged that between February and June 2012, at locations in Scotland, Whyte, Whitehouse, Clark and Green conspired together to acquire through the administration of Rangers ‘de facto control and ownership of the business and assets of the club’. A seventh charge alleges, between February 1, 2012, and December 31, 2012, at Ibrox and locations in Europe, Whyte, Whitehouse, Clark and Green acted illegally.
Finally, it is alleged that between March 1, 2012, and December 30, 2013, Green obtained ‘material benefit and a quantity of shares and money by fraud’.
The case was adjourned for a further procedural hearing later this year.