Board made aware of more links between Green and Whyte

[the gunslinger 3,366]

CHARLES Green has quit Rangers after being confronted over his links to Craig Whyte.

 

The chief executive stepped down yesterday after the club launched a probe into his involvement with Whyte.

 

Green has admitted colluding with the shamed ex-owner to buy Gers. But we can reveal the Ibrox board have been made aware of more links between the two.

 

Green had also sparked outrage by using a racist term about colleague and pal Imran Ahmad.

 

Green said last night: â??Recent events have undoubtedly been a distraction for both myself and all involved with Rangers and I feel that it is appropriate that I step down so that the club can continue to progress back to where it belongs at the pinnacle of Scottish football.â?

 

Green â?? who led the consortium who purchased the assets of the liquidated Rangers FC plc in June â?? is the subject of an independent investigation, commissioned by the board, following claims of covert dealings with Whyte.

 

Green confirmed Whyteâ??s allegation that they colluded to buy the club from administrators Duff & Phelps but claimed he was just stringing Whyte along in order to â??shaftâ? him later.

 

But club chiefs have been made aware of more links between them

 

The board are examining evidence that one of Whyteâ??s business partners and a major player behind his attempts to reclaim control of Rangers is connected to the company behind Greenâ??s takeover.

 

Lancashire businessman Joe Dwek â?? a long-time associate of Whyte â?? stands to pocket a fortune if disgraced Whyte is successful in his legal attempts to prove that he still owns the Ibrox club.

 

Dwek has an 11.6 per cent stake in Worthington Group plc, who confirmed to the Stock Exchange on Wednesday that they had agreed to help fund Whyteâ??s proposed courtroom battle.

 

Worthington Group are so confident of raking in a fortune that they have an option to buy Whyte out for £1million â?? and then split whateverâ??s left of Rangersâ?? cash and assets with the man who plunged the club into liquidation last year.

 

A probe has been launched into links between Craig Whyte and Charles Green

PA/SNS

 

However, Dwek is also a business mentor to Zeus Capital founder Richard Hughes, who snapped up more than two million shares in Gers in December after engineering Greenâ??s buyout. The Record has learned that the Rangers board are now aware of an interview in which Hughes refers to Dwek as â??one of the most impressive people Iâ??ve ever metâ?.

 

In 2005, Hughes told website Insider Media Ltd: â??You can only look after someone like him if youâ??re keeping him happy and making him money.â?

 

He added: â??Heâ??s intellectually demanding and forces me to think in new ways â?¦ now we take his counsel because weâ??ve got a solid platform to build on.â?

 

News of links between Green and Whyte will come as no surprise to Record readers. Back in May, we revealed another connection.

 

In 2000, Green struck a £30million â??tax efficient investmentâ? deal with finance giants Close Brothers through his own financial services company, Kingsbridge Holdings. Last year, Whyte sold £2million of future earnings from matchday catering at Ibrox to Close Brothers to pay for the lease of kitchen equipment.

 

There is another link between Close Brothers and Whyte. One of the board members of Close

Brothers is Ray Greenshields, who is also chairman of Octopus VCT3, who own Ticketus.

 

Whyte funded his takeover of Rangers by selling off future season tickets to Ticketus.

 

Earlier this month, Whyte threatened legal action to prove he still has ownership over Rangersâ?? assets and released recordings of conversations he had with Green and commercial director Ahmad.

 

As well as Gersâ?? probe, the SFA are conducting an investigation of their own into Green.

 

A statement from Rangers last night said: â??Whilst Mr Green strenuously denies any wrongdoing, he has recognised that this negative publicity is a distraction and is detracting from the achievements and reputation of the club.

 

â??As a result, Mr Green has informed the board that he will leave his post with immediate effect and leave the company, following an orderly handover, by the end of May. The board has commenced the search for a new chief executive.â?

 

Rangers chairman Malcolm Murray added: â??Charles Green was instrumental in helping to secure financial stability for the club. The impact he had in turning the club around from the dark days of last summer will never be forgotten.â?

 

Last night, senior Ibrox figures were attempting to determine the extent of the links between Dwek and the men who helped place Green and sidekicks Ahmad and money man Brian Stockbridge into power.

 

Greenâ??s takeover consortium were heavily backed by Manchesterâ??s Zeus Capital. Ahmad and Stockbridge gave up directorships with the finance firm to team up with Green.

 

The third Zeus man is founder and director Hughes, who has a 6.8 per cent stake in Rangers and is regarded by many as the key man behind Greenâ??s successful bid to buy the clubâ??s assets for £5.5million. Last year, he became embroiled in a criminal investigation after HMRC launched probes into tax schemes sold by Hughes.

 

Rangers are determined to discover why Dwek â?? one of Hughesâ??s closest allies â?? has now joined Whyteâ??s camp.

 

The Rangers board held an emergency meeting at Murray Park on Saturday after Green confirmed Whyteâ??s claims.

 

Former manager Walter Smith has been infuriated by Greenâ??s conduct and that of Ahmad and Stockbridge and has thrown his weight firmly behind Murrayâ??s stance. Smith may even have resigned from the board had Murray failed to win approval for the probe.

 

Green is understood to have retreated to France on holiday.

 

But a power struggle still rages inside Ibrox as Murray attempts to pull together the men he believes should spearhead the investigation, against fierce resistance from Ahmad and Stockbridge, who want to appoint their own team of experts to act as judge and jury.

 

Murray is confident of winning through and hopes to announce who is heading the commission soon.

 

Ahmad has also raised suspicions by closely courting controversial bus tycoon Sandy Easdale, a convicted criminal who has served time for VAT fraud. And, as the civil war continues, Whyte has been in London pointing his own guns towards the club he claimed to love â?? and recruiting Dwek as back up.

 

Dwekâ??s Worthington Group have purchased 26 per cent of Law Financial Ltd â?? a new company Whyte has

set up ahead of his anticipated courtroom battle. In the announcement made to the Stock Exchange on Wednesday, it

was stated that among Law Finacialâ??s subsidiaries are Sevco 5088 Ltd, the company at the centre of the dispute between Whyte and Green.

 

Whyte and long-term accomplice Aiden Earley are also shareholders in Worthington and theyâ??ve insisted the companyâ??s cash fund the litigation against the current Ibrox regime.

 

Worthington say their own legal experts have advised that the club have â??a prima facie case to answerâ?.

[SteveC 150]

Even though it is the Rhebel, they clearly have someone on the inside feeding them info. So, some of this is very worrying (yes, I know some of you will say all is fine, don't be a drama queen - you always say that and the nightmare scenario always unfolds as the drama queens always fear!)

[the gunslinger 3,366]

i suspect most of the information is from aj it seems an extension of what he was saying recently.

[SteveC 150]

i suspect most of the information is from aj it seems an extension of what he was saying recently.

 

ta, it is a bit of an odd article - some links tenuous and just thrown in, the headline more dramatic than anything solid in it - but what I find disturbing are the Worthington's and Zeus's of this world and how they always have people involved with Whyte in one way or another.

[der Berliner 3,744]

i suspect most of the information is from aj it seems an extension of what he was saying recently.

 

In what capacity would AJ have any link to the current board-room/directors?

 

In any case, this leaking of info needs to be stopped. Not just regarding to Green et al.

[the gunslinger 3,366]

In what capacity would AJ have any link to the current board-room/directors?

 

In any case, this leaking of info needs to be stopped. Not just regarding to Green et al.

 

yeah far better we don't know when our board are a bunch of cunts. people said this when jackson revealed the ticketus deal.

[der Berliner 3,744]

yeah far better we don't know when our board are a bunch of cunts. people said this when jackson revealed the ticketus deal.

 

To some it is just Black & White, to some it is about confidentiality (if that is the right word). I prefer that decent people work for the club that do not leak any sort of crap to a bloodlusting media.

[the gunslinger 3,366]

i think the fans MUST know whats going on. especially if people are trying to hide something.

[der Berliner 3,744]

i think the fans MUST know whats going on. especially if people are trying to hide something.

 

That is not the point. The point is who leaks info to whom. No problem if there is a steady info stream out of the club, even the boardroom. But no secretive cloak and dagger exclusives to those who have every intent to make money of it (and stir the shyte up to their hearts content).

[the gunslinger 3,366]

so you think we should leak this stuff on the official site?