SFA dossier reveals how David Murray was aware of Craig Whyte's record

[ian1964 10,870]

DAVID Murray sacrificed Rangers to save his business empire after bankers held a £700million gun to his head, it was revealed yesterday.

 

An SFA panelâ??s damning report also lays bare how close Rangers came to being kicked out of the association because of Craig Whyteâ??s disastrous stewardship of the club.

 

And despite Murrayâ??s later claims of being duped by Whyte, the panel concluded he was well aware of the shady businessmanâ??s failings.

 

The former Ibrox chief sold the club to Whyte knowing he was involved with a string of insolvent companies and there was no evidence of him having the means to run the club.

 

The appalling management of Rangers is exposed in the SFAâ??s Judicial Panel Disciplinary report, released yesterday.

 

It reveals how worried directors tried to put the brakes on the sale by having Whyteâ??s shady dealings examined by a private eye â?? but Murray remained resolute and eventually won the day.

 

The sale of Rangers to Whyte wiped £18million off Murray International Holdings Ltdâ??s debt to Lloyds â?? only around 2.5 per cent of their total £700million debt mountain.

 

But Murray was clear of the club, and its forthcoming financial and footballing armageddon.

 

The report details the reasons behind the severe punishments imposed on Rangers by the SFA last month.

 

And it reveals the panel considered terminating Rangersâ?? membership of the SFA because of Whyteâ??s conduct.

 

At the time when Whyte was lining up his bid 14 months ago, Murray was desperate to bale out.

 

Murray International Holdings Ltd were under â??serious pressureâ? from their bankers â?? HBoS, later Lloyds â?? to reduce their debt levels, the panel report says.

 

And when chief operating officer Martin Bain showed Murray a detectiveâ??s worrying report on Whyte, the Rangers owner said he had little option but to sell â?? and urged Bain to convince the board to BACK the sale.

 

The private investigators hired by the Rangersâ?? Independent Board Committee found Whyte was involved with numerous companies which were soon wound up owing thousands of pounds in unpaid taxes.

 

And they could find no evidence of Whyteâ??s supposed personal wealth.

 

When Bain, a member of the IBC, received the â??substantial and detailedâ? report on Whyte, it left him â??very concernedâ?.

 

The panel conclude that, out of the IBC members, â??at leastâ? chairman Alastair Johnson was also shown the dossier by Bain before he presented it to Murray.

 

The report showed most of Whyteâ??s companies left a trail of debt, including unpaid taxes running to six-figure sums.

 

Whyte had promised the then Rangers board he could settle the potentially ruinous â??big tax caseâ? using £15million of his own personal wealth.

 

But he provided the board with no information about his companies or proof of funding.

 

When the Rangers board asked the Murray Group if Whyte had provided proof of funds, they were told he had â?? but the board never saw the proof.

 

And any concerns were raised to no avail, as the bankers held the whip hand all along. Lloyds had placed Donald Muir on the Rangers board to represent their interests.

 

Through Muir, the panel report states, the board became aware that Lloyds were â??extremely enthusiasticâ? about the sale to Whyte for the nominal fee of £1 in cash and clearance of the clubâ??s debt.

 

The SFA report says Bain was initially apprehensive about raising his concerns with Murray because he was worried about possible repercussions.

 

The findings say: â??He took the view that once he had â??crossed the lineâ?? there would be no way back.â?

 

Bain met Murray in March last year and aired his concerns that the Murray Group and Murray himself had â??lacked due diligenceâ? in probing Whyte.

 

But Murray said pressure from the bank to sell to Whyte left him â??almost no optionâ? and asked Bain to get the approval of the IBC and the full board.

 

Bain refused to do so, the report said. And his broaching of the subject led to his once-close relationship with Murray being â??damagedâ?.

 

The findings say that as well as the IBC and the board being leaned on to sell by Murray, Johnston was being pressured by Lloyds.

 

When Johnston and the board asked Whyte where he would find cash to repair parts of Ibrox and provide working capital, Whyte said cash had been lodged with his London solicitors Collyer Bristow and that proof of this had been shown to the Murray Group.

 

When the board sought confirmation from the Murray Group, they were told Collyer Bristow had provided proof of funds.

 

The revelations call into question Murrayâ??s claims that he was â??dupedâ? by Craig Whyte.

 

He made the claim when the club entered administration, saying: â??I was duped. My advisers were duped, the bank was duped, the shareholders were duped. Weâ??ve all been duped. Is duped the right word? Duped is the right word.

 

â??I deeply, deeply regret selling the club to Craig Whyte. If the information had been available to me at the time, I wouldnâ??t have done it.â?

 

The SFA findings provide evidence that Murray was fully aware of Whyteâ??s past and lack of proof of funds.

 

The findings also state that prior to Whyteâ??s takeover, Rangers had been under â??financial stressâ? and had owed â??well in excess of £30millionâ?, though that had been â??substantially reducedâ?.

 

The Murray Group were in debt to Lloyds â??in the order of £700millionâ?. The report adds: â??The Murray Group was under substantial pressure from Lloyds to reduce its overall indebtedness.

 

â??The asset holdings of the Murray Group were in iron and steel, and in heritable property, and market conditions were unfavourable to profitable realisation of assets or the generation of funds from these sectors.â?

 

The report also details how the board was split over the sale.

 

It says: â??The directors were provided with no details or evidence of any financial matters or proof of funding or assets relating to Whyte or his companies. A number of directors became extremely concerned and sceptical about his good faith, status and standing.

 

â??They remained very concerned about the absence of any form of verification as to his financial or business standing. Other directors took a less critical view.â?

 

The panel report concludes that from May 6, 2001, until February 14, 2012, Craig Whyte was the â??directing mind and willâ? of Rangers.

 

He deliberately failed to pay tax and information and accounts were withheld from the board.

 

The report says club legend John Greig and former chairman John McClelland resigned because they knew information was being withheld by Whyte.

 

Other board members, the panel report states, â??could have made public the activities of Craig Whyte, of which they were aware or ought to have been awareâ?.

 

These concerns, the panel said, could have gone to the PLUS Stock Exchange and the lack of an AGM at Rangers should also have sounded alarms.

 

Their report concludes there was a â??complete breakdown of corporate governance of Rangers FCâ?. These failings constituted â??as serious offences against the ordinary standards of corporate governance as one could imagineâ?.

 

The panel, who accuse Whyte of planning not to pay tax from the outset, say only match-fixing could have been a more serious breach than the way in which Rangers was run under him.

 

They said: â??The massive extent of the failure and the intentional and calculated manner in which it was carried out aggravated the breach even further.â?

 

The report also reveals: â??The tribunal considered whether it should terminate Rangers FC membership of the Scottish FA and concluded that punishment was too severe.

 

â??It considered whether suspension of membership was a less serious but appropriately severe punishment, but concluded that too was too severe.â?

 

A Lloyds Banking Group spokesman said last night: â??The deal to purchase the majority shareholding of Rangers FC was a matter between Craig Whyte and Sir David Murray.

 

â??The bankâ??s involvement was in relation to the debt owed by Rangers FC, which was repaid in full in accordance with all required regulatory checks.â?

 

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/2012/05/12/rangers-in-crisis-sfa-dossier-reveals-how-david-murray-was-aware-of-craig-whyte-s-record-86908-23856470/

[ian1964 10,870]

Leggat - DAVID MURRAY REVEALED AS A DUPLICITOUS LIAR

 

 

SO now we know. David Murray was not Doyle Lonnegan after all.

 

Not the bumbling buffoon of a simpleton he told us he was. Not the Scottish version of the boorish Irish gangster of a ‘mark,’ played by Robert Shaw in the Sting.

 

No, David Murray was more like a character in a James Bond movie. But not the one played by his pal, Sean Connery. Not 007. The character I have in mind is Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the arch villain.

 

Not just the bad guy, the evil bad guy.

 

That is exactly what the Scottish Football Association Judicial panel has revealed David Murray to be.

 

David Murray was not duped. David Murray was duplicitous.

 

Duplicitous in the sale of Rangers to Craig Whyte, the cheating lying conman and crook who brought Rangers to this low.

 

That Craig Whyte.

 

In cahoots with that David Murray.

 

Far from David Murray having had the wool pulled over his eyes by a cunning con perpetrated by Craig Whyte, David plunged straight in, eyes wide open.

 

But only after admitting that he had to sell Rangers because he was so deeply in debt to Lloyds Bank. That is, David Murray’s other companies were so deeply in hock to Lloyds that he had to do just exactly what they told him to do.

 

And Lloyds Bank told him to sell Rangers to Craig Whyte.

 

Lloyds Bank insisted that David Murray sold Rangers to Craig Whyte.

 

Lloyds Bank ORDERED David Murray to sell Rangers to Craig Whyte.

 

And David Murray did just exactly what he was told and sold out Rangers to Craig Whyte in a damning act of cowardice and utter and shameful betrayal.

 

And then David Murray lied and lied and lied. He was even willing to be held up as a laughing stock by saying Whyte had duped him. David Murray was even willing to be compared to Doyle Lonnegan.

 

All to avoid admitting what he had really done to Rangers. All to avoid telling the truth.

 

But the truth will out.

 

ALWAYS!

 

No matter who it concerns. Charles Green and the shadowy men he is involved with should remember that. As should Duff and Phelps in general and David Whitehouse in particular.

 

For the moment though the spotlight shines on David Murray and there will be no place for him to go to escape from it. Not his estate in Perthshire. Not his French vineyards. Not his Edinburgh home. Not his office in Charlotte Square.

 

The truth is like that. It follows you about, popping out to confront you with a grin every time you think you’ve ducked it. Or that people have forgotten it.

 

And the truth is that the Rangers Independent Board, formed to probe Craig Whyte, hired a private investigator to delve into Whyte and presented his report to David Murray. That was in March last year, two months before David sold out Rangers to Craig Whyte.

 

But David Murray simply ignored all of the warnings about Craig Whyte.

 

It was Martin Bain who delivered the black spot to David Murray. And it was Martin Bain who, giving evidence to the SFA’s Judicial Panel - evidence which they believed - revealed what David Murray told him.

 

A revelation which will damn David Murray for all time.

 

What David Murray said was that he was under pressure from Lloyds Bank to sell Rangers and that he had no option, other than to sell Rangers to Craig Whyte.

 

But David Murray went further. David Murray showed just how desperate he was. For he begged Bain to urge the specially formed Ibrox Independent Board to approve his sale of Rangers to Craig Whyte.

 

He begged Bain to get men of honour such as Paul Murray and Alistair Johnston to lie on his behalf.

 

But Bain, David Murray’s loyal ally and lieutentant for more than a decade, finally snapped.

 

He saw his old boss stripped of all the veneer of power, laid bare as a man willing to go to any lengths to please his Lloyds Bank masters, no matter what dreadful damage his actions inflicted on Rangers.

 

He saw David Murray for what he really was.

 

And Martin Bain told David Murray to get stuffed.

 

Bain told him that he would not urge the other members of the Independent Board, Alastair Johnston, John McClelland and John Greig, to approve David Murray selling Rangers down the river to Craig Whyte.

 

It’s all there in the 27,000 word Scottish Football Association explanation.

 

All the questions about the way David Murray behaved during the sale of his 85.3per cent shareholding in Rangers to Craig Whyte, are answered.

 

All the credible evidence which was believed, is there in detail.

 

And it all reveals the lies David Murray has been hiding behind for the last year as he watched the consequences of ignoring all the warnings about Whyte, just so he could do his master's bidding.

 

His master was and remains, Lloyds Bank. David Murray, in effect, acted as their agent in sending Rangers plunging to where they are now.

 

There’s more. And other aspects from the SFA Judicial Panel. And I will be examining some of them, attempting to interpret some and commenting on others.

 

For the moment it is best to start at the beginning and the beginning of this whole sorry saga was when Craig Whyte appeared on the scene and David Murray sold out Rangers to him, despite evidence which warned him not to.

 

Despite the report of a private investigator and advice from cool heads. Despite advice from true blue Rangers men such as Alastair Johnston.

 

David Murray ignored it all. The only voice he listened to was that of the man from Lloyds Bank who was screaming the bank’s order in David Murray’s ear….

 

SELL! SELL! SELL!

 

David Murray was no Doyle Lonnegan. He was and remains, Ernst Stravro Blofeld.

 

David Murray was no dupe. David Murray was duplicitous.

 

http://leggoland2.blogspot.co.uk/

[Guest Guardian]

Bit over the top from leggo.

 

I doubt anyone can be surprised at this "scoop". It was always obvious that Lloyds put a gun to Murrays head.

 

Murray could have saved himself some grief by electing to tell the truth rather than cover it up.

 

His namesake is now using the same media for the same thing, which is one of the reasons I don't want TBK near Rangers.

[the gunslinger 3,366]

making excuses for sdm holy fuck.

 

whyte actually produced fraudulent invoiced to con hmrc and rangers staff.

 

I hope Muir sdm whyte and any other cunt involved at lloyds get the jail for this.

 

all of them with a group of bears in barlinie.

[andy steel 0]

Oh dear.

 

It seems I will have to pm theFish and apologise for not getting my heid oot the sand all these years, altho at least his bumboy Bain emerges with a scrap of honour intact.

[amms 0]

Yeah, for all the abuse Bain has taken from so many on Rangers messageboards over the years he does seem to have come out of this disaster with some dignity. That alone might signal we are now in the end of days.

The report is so lengthy I've not even scratched the surface of it. Has anyone yet?

[andy steel 0]

I read it all, mate. Wish I hadn't.

[Zappa 0]

I read it all, mate. Wish I hadn't.

 

There's some real eye-opening information in it, that's for sure!

[Gers4Life 0]

There's some real eye-opening information in it, that's for sure!

 

Their aint half mate, thats scary debt that is £700 millions