Withey speaks!

[forlanssister 3,114]

Find this weird indeed, note he's being employed as consultant as opposed to an actual lawyer.

 

Gary Withey breaks silence about Rangers crisis

 

Gary Withey, Rangers’ company secretary and a former partner with Collyer Bristow – the London law firm who advised Craig Whyte on his takeover at Ibrox last May – spoke on Wednesday night for the first time since the club went into administration on Feb 14.

 

The man who was at one point described by the administrators, Duff and Phelps, as “key to the understanding of all sorts of guarantees and deals” at Rangers, quit Collyer Bristow in early March, citing family reasons for his departure.

 

At the time former colleagues indicated that Withey had received threats so serious that they were reported to the Metropolitan Police. The Met, though, declared that they did not have a record of any such complaint and Strathclyde Police stated that they had not been advised by any English police force of threats emanating from within their force area.

 

However, Withey told The Daily Telegraph: “The threat was very serious and very specific, with details relating to my family, which were deeply alarming. I am still in possession of it.

“My mobile phone number was also published online – I had to change it – and I can assure you that the matter was reported to the police.”

 

Asked how aware he had been that Whyte was siphoning PAYE and VAT income at source to use as cash flow instead of remitting it to HMRC, Withey said: “The only people who knew about that – apart from Craig Whyte – were the people who worked in the accounts department. I was not involved in the day to day running of the club.

 

“What did surprise me was that Rangers went into administration when they did because HMRC had been fairly straightforward to deal with and it looked as they were going to agree terms with the club. Then they became belligerent.

 

“I have had no contact with Rangers since the administrators came in and although it seems that some people think I left Collyer Bristow with a financial package, I did not get any kind of pay-off.”

Withey is acting as a consultant for Segens Solicitors – the company’s specialities include mergers and acquisitions and insolvency and bankruptcy.

 

Senior partner, Michael Segen, told The Lawyer magazine: “I’ve known Gary for many years and value his corporate expertise. I’m sure Gary will be a very valuable asset to this practice.”

Duff and Phelps have until April 16 to file any alleged claims of professional negligence or breach of fiduciary duty against Collyer Bristow on behalf of Rangers but Withey stated that he knew nothing about the case and would not be present in court on Monday.

 

In another development, the Ibrox administrators criticised the timing of the Scottish Premier League’s announcement of proposals for more severe penalties for clubs that go into administration.

Rangers were deducted 10 points as soon as their insolvency was notified in February and the resultant gap of 14 points between them and Celtic effectively ended the race for the championship, which the Parkhead side clinched at Kilmarnock last Saturday.

 

If proposals to be put before the SPL clubs on April 30 are accepted, any club undergoing an insolvency event will be penalised 15 points or a third of their previous season’s points total – whichever is the greater.

 

One non-Old Firm club chairman told The Daily Telegraph: “Rangers were deducted 10 points but they are still second in the table. A 10-point deduction at the bottom has a different effect and, by allowing a variation in the punishment, it can be made to be more equitable across the board.”

Rangers finished last season as champions with 93 points, so if the sanction had been applied when they went into administration two months ago they would have been deducted 31 points, a sanction that would have left them currently level with Inverness Caley Thistle, who are in 10th place in the table.

 

That in turn would have meant that the final Old Firm derby of the season, scheduled for Celtic Park on April 29, could not have taken place and the season would have finished with an odd number of meetings of the Glasgow pair for the first time ever. Moreover, it would have deprived the broadcasters of an instalment of their biggest attraction for viewers.

 

The proposed penalties cannot be backdated but they would apply to Rangers if the club does not emerge with a CVA before next season opens on Aug 4. Should Rangers still be in administration on that date, they would open their campaign with a minimum deduction of 21 points and a maximum of 26 points, if they win their remaining five games this season.

 

If the proposals are accepted and Rangers are admitted as a ‘newco’ to the SPL before August, they would be deducted an immediate 10 points and the same again for 2013-14. Another proposal clearly shaped by recent events at Ibrox would require clubs to report any failure to make payments to HMRC in respect of PAYE and National Insurance contributions.

 

Any club suffering such a ‘default event’ would have a player registration embargo imposed. In a suggested change driven by Hearts’ failure to pay players on time on several occasions this season, such incidents will be deemed a breach of SPL rules.

 

Rangers’ administrators issued a statement that said they had hoped to announce acceptance in principle of an offer for the club but could not do so because they were now obliged to advise prospective purchasers of the proposals and give them time to digest the possible consequences.

They added that “the fact that such measures are being considered at such a sensitive point in the sale process at Rangers is disruptive and regrettable”.

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/rangers/9198436/Gary-Withey-breaks-silence-about-Rangers-crisis.html?

Edited April 12, 2012 by forlanssister

[pete 2,499]

So if you go into administration you make sure you lose all your remaining games (just avoiding relegation of course) and the penalty is far less than it will be if you win your remaining games. What a stupid rule that one is. You can virtually work out your own penalty. With the bottom 6 clubs all under 40 and Dunfermline only having 20 points, Hearts who now are on 47 points could just lose all their remaining games and only carry the 15 point penalty if they went into administration. Totally stupid rule

[BlueMazza 0]

So if you go into administration you make sure you lose all your remaining games (just avoiding relegation of course) and the penalty is far less than it will be if you win your remaining games. What a stupid rule that one is. You can virtually work out your own penalty. With the bottom 6 clubs all under 40 and Dunfermline only having 20 points, Hearts who now are on 47 points could just lose all their remaining games and only carry the 15 point penalty if they went into administration. Totally stupid rule

 

I agree but you are making the assumption that this is about affecting any other club. Sorry, but it's not. This is about hitting Rangers. Everyone is in a mad moral outrage, yet we haven't lost the tax case as of just now. All these changes are for maximum impact to Rangers, no one else.