Rangers owner Craig Whyte tracked down to his five-star bolthole in Monaco

[pete 2,511]

THE Sunday Mail last night tracked down runaway Rangers chief Craig Whyte to a luxury apartment in a millionaireâ??s playground on the French Riviera.

 

We found the businessman, who flew out of Britain as the extent of Rangersâ?? financial chaos emerged, in his £3million flat in Monaco.

 

But when we asked to talk, Whyte hid in his apartment and refused to answer his buzzer.

 

In an earlier telephone call to his Monte Carlo bolthole â?? 1000 miles from Ibrox â?? the 40-year-old had refused to apologise to Rangers fans for driving their club into administration.

 

We can reveal that Whyte flew from London to Nice on Thursday before heading to the property close to the principalityâ??s exclusive St Roman harbourside.

 

He spent Friday holed up in the Roc Fleuri building, where apartments command monthly rents of up to £40,000.

 

Whyteâ??s full name appears on the buzzer. Neighbouring properties house the French and German embassies.

 

Yesterday, he remained out of sight as Rangers manager Ally McCoist prepared to take his patched-up team to face Inverness Caley Thistle today.

 

His players fear it could be their last game for the club as administrators â?? faced with a £9million PAYE and VAT demand and awaiting the result of a £45million tax case â?? move to cut costs.

 

Asked if he felt it was time to apologise to Ibrox fans over his running of the club, Whyte said: â??Iâ??m not giving any interviews today.â?

 

Asked the question a second time, he hung up the landline inside the apartment.

 

The Sunday Mail can reveal that Whyte has had no contact with administrators Duff & Phelps since Tuesday and friends believe it is â??highly unlikelyâ? that he will go to another Rangers match.

 

A source said: â??If you are asking if he will be back at Ibroxâ?¦ that would be highly unlikely.

 

â??There is a feeling now that it would be counterproductive for him to do that.

 

â??He is in Monaco but he is not there to hide â?? his attitude is that he is not hiding away.â?

 

Whyte has not been seen in public since February 15, the day after the club were placed in administration, when he met staff at Duff & Phelpsâ?? London offices.

 

Since then, he has been berated by fans after he admitted using a £24million payment from Ticketus to fund his takeover â?? something he had categorically denied.

craig whyte monaco Image 1

 

The money was given after Whyte handed the firm the rights to 60 per cent of Rangersâ?? season tickets for at least three seasons.

 

Despite speculation that Whyte was in Costa Rica, he had been staying with friends in the south east of England.

 

He has been left out of the loop as administrators work through the financial wreckage at Ibrox.

 

Sources yesterday said Whyte has privately accepted he has to take a back seat.

 

One said: â??It is probably best for all concerned that he is out of the way for a while.

 

â??The whole thing is severely unravelling and his presence in Glasgow wouldnâ??t be helping anyone.â? But Rangers fans â?? some of whom praised Whyte for fronting up outside Ibrox after placing the club in administration â?? will be furious.

 

While their owner enjoys the sun in the south of France, the team languish 23 points behind bitter rivals Celtic in the SPL.

 

And almost every day since his departure has brought a new bombshell about Whyteâ??s running of the club.

 

Yesterday, it emerged he had mortgaged off the clubâ??s catering in a deal involving financing firm Close Brothers.

 

That followed the revelation that he sold Rangersâ?? historic shareholding in Arsenal for £230,000.

 

Whyte is facing four separate investigations into his running of Rangers since his takeover last May â??by Strathclyde Police, HMRC, the administrators and the SFA.

 

Whyte first moved to Monaco in 2000 after leaving a trail of angry creditors and a tax investigation following the collapse of his Vital UK firm.

craig whyte monaco Image 1

 

In an interview that year, his then fiancee Kim said: â??You can leave bags of shopping in the back of your convertible and theyâ??ll still be there when you return.

 

â??I could walk down the street with millions of poundsâ?? worth of jewellery and no one would look twice.â?

 

The pair later moved to Costa Rica before returning to Scotland as a married couple.

 

In an interview with the Sunday Mail last week, his father-in-law Hugh Martin branded him â??a man who doesnâ??t know the meaning of the word honestyâ?.

 

Whyteâ??s spokesman declined to comment yesterday.

 

Director Andrew Ellis last week apologised for bringing Whyte to Ibrox, claiming he was â??dupedâ?.

 

London-based businessman Ellis introduced Whyte to former Rangers owner Murray in November 2010 and after his own takeover failed.

 

Ellis, who joined the Ibrox board in January, said: â??I can only say Iâ??m sorry to the Rangers fans.

 

â??Bringing Craig to the table was done in good faith and like a lot of other people I feel let down by him. I took Craig to meet Sir David Murray in the south of France and thatâ??s when talks began and Iâ??m distraught that it has ended up like this.

 

â??My interest in buying the club had ended due to the potential cost of the impending tax case but I had met Craig via the Cadbury family and was told by people that he was a very successful and wealthy businessman who was interested in buying Rangers.

 

â??He appeared to have the money, he showed me proof of funds and told me about the numerous companies he owned.

 

â??I was absolutely devastated last week to see the club go into administration with jobs at risk.

 

â??But it could have been avoided.â?

 

Revealed - Bain's £400k probe

martin bain rangers Image 1

 

Ibrox administrators are scrutinising documents suggesting former chief executive Martin Bain was paid £400,000 when the club were sold to Craig Whyte.

 

Paperwork taken from former chairman Sir David Murrayâ??s offices on Friday suggests Bain received the cash.

 

Bain, who earned more than £600,000 a year, is now suing his old club for £1.3million and has frozen £480,000 of their funds.

 

Rangersâ?? administrators Duff & Phelps yesterday refused to comment but sources say they are trying to discover if the £400,000 payment was a bonus linked to the sale of the Ibrox giants.

 

Itâ??s claimed Bain was given the sum by Murray soon after the club sale last May.

 

The discovery was said to have been made after Duff & Phelps moneyman Paul Clark visited the former Rangers owner at his offices in Edinburgh on Friday.

 

The administrators took paperwork and documents away with them and it is understood that the payment was detailed.

 

Asked about the alleged payment, a Duff & Phelps spokesman would only say: â??No comment.â?

 

Bainâ??s legal team also refused to comment.

 

Bain, 44, joined Rangers in 1996 as commercial manager and was appointed chief executive by Murray in 2005.

 

But he quit after being suspended along with then-finance director Donald McIntyre in the wake of Whyteâ??s takeover of the club last May.

 

He later launched a £1.3million damages claim for alleged breach of contract.

 

And he had £480,000 ringfenced by a court in July last year.

 

A £300,000 compensation claim by McIntyre was then settled.

 

On legal papers, Bainâ??s salary was listed as £610,800 plus hundreds of thousands of pounds in bonuses.

 

Bainâ??s lawyer last night said he could not be reached to comment on the claims.

 

Bain was suspended after concerns were raised about Whyteâ??s takeover by him and other directors.

 

He was informed of the reasons by letter last May.

 

We revealed last year how leaked legal documents showed Bain feared the club could be completely sunk by their massive tax bill.

 

The 14-page document also questioned whether pledges about financing made by Whyte had been honoured.

 

Fans have shown they have turned their back on Whyte since the club went into administration.

 

But many also turned on Bain, and Murray who they blamed for years of *overspending.

[bluebear54 0]

It's struck me what level of charlatan this guy actually is. He talks about letting the administrators do their bit and not interfering.

Load of tosh. As the owner of the Club, he SHOULD be central to helping us, the team, the staff, the Club and the administrators all through this.

He's got previous for doing this - when the natives get restless, move out of Dodge, lie low, and do the same in a couple of years.

I really hope we can get the takeover annulled - and - it follows - any major contractual decisions such as Ticketus.

Maybe I'm just being optimistic. Even if we did, that would take ages.

I fear that the only way we will get shot of him is buying him out or setting up a new Club and buying him out.

The status of the takeover is the key to everything IMO.

[biggordy 0]

One man's "bolthole" in Monaco is another man shutting the curtains for the weekend.

As for "helping the administrators", don't you think the press would call it "interfering, obstructing etc"?

The press and media have decided Craig Whyte is the devil incarnate, when in fact he our current owner and is now fucked whatever happens.

I'll be the first one to condemn him when, and if, he is gaoled for embezzlement, fraud, theft and being an all round bad egg.

He is free to go wherever he wants, whenever he wants and, up until recently able to do whatever he wanted to do with "his" Club.

 

I've always believed in the principle of "innocent until proven otherwise", can we please retain OUR dignity and suspend our anger until legal process has been completed.

We are fast becoming the angry mob in an old Frankenstein movie and I think it is very "tim like", what next, fucking candles!

Steady boys for fucks sake.

[Juancornetto 1]

Is it me or is it noticeable that the gutter media have been starved of information since we entered Administration?

 

I hear the NOTW 2 lead with the exclusive that Rangers may have abused EBT's to pay players...and now I see that according to the Sunday Mail, (a skint) Craig Whyte went into hiding in his own house in Monaco. Have Duff and Phelps indirectly plugged a leak?

[Bluedell 6,064]

I'll be the first one to condemn him when, and if, he is gaoled for embezzlement, fraud, theft and being an all round bad egg.

He is free to go wherever he wants, whenever he wants and, up until recently able to do whatever he wanted to do with "his" Club.

 

So he can have done nothing wrong unless he is jailed?

 

So you are happy for him to do whatever he wants? He is free not to meet his commitments per the shareholder circular which has resulted in us getting put into administration and cost us 10 points? He is free to withhold information that he is legally obliged to disclose? He is free to mortgage off future season ticket money and catering income and you're telling me to suspend my anger? Why? All of that has been proven.

 

As far as you're concerned he is free to continue shafting the club and lying to the support and we are acting like tims for raising concerns and being angry about it?

 

There is enough information publicly available that has been confirmed by the administrators and Whyte himself that allows us to make up our own minds. Just because we have done that and you have not does not mean that we are "tim like".

[Bluedell 6,064]

I hear the NOTW 2 lead with the exclusive that Rangers may have abused EBT's to pay players

 

It's hardly an exclusive. I'm sure that the big tax case has been mentioned elsewhere.

 

As for your point that the gutter media have been starved of stories since administration, i'd disagree, from what I can tell. There appears to me to have been as much. The Record had a different story every day last week.

[GovanAllan 0]

Did you see the so called smoking gun of a draft letter, Ha Ha my 6 year old could've come up with something better.

[capstans 0]

I read Scotsman I think some quotes from one of the big accountancy firms, that what was in the public domain at the moment was far from illegal on Whytes part.

[aweebluesoandso 290]

Did you see the so called smoking gun of a draft letter, Ha Ha my 6 year old could've come up with something better.

 

Ha ha, it's like one of those joke guns when you press the trigger, a wee flag pops out that says 'Bang'

[Juancornetto 1]

It's hardly an exclusive. I'm sure that the big tax case has been mentioned elsewhere.

 

As for your point that the gutter media have been starved of stories since administration, i'd disagree, from what I can tell. There appears to me to have been as much. The Record had a different story every day last week.

 

My point exactly.....Have they said anything new or has it just been sensationalised and rehashed versions of what we already know?