Full indictment of charges against Whyte released

[JFK-1 1,693]

THE trial is expected to start in April and last three months and the Crown have now presented the precise charges that the ex-Ibrox chief will face.

 

THE trial of former Rangers owner Craig Whyte is moving closer after a hearing at the High Court in Glasgow pencilled in a start date of next April.

 

The 45-year-old faces two charges - one of fraud and a second allegation under the Companies Act.

 

The first accusation claims Whyte obtained a “majority and controlling stake” in Rangers “by fraud”.

 

The charge dates between May 2010 and May 2011 listing various locations including Ibrox Stadium , Murray Park as well as “addresses meantime unknown” in Monaco and France.

 

It is said Whyte and his representatives pretended to then Rangers owner Sir David Murray and others that “funds were available” to make all stipulated payments.

 

It is claimed “resources necessary” were available to meet a number of “obligations” including £5m for “the playing squad”.

 

The second charge under the Companies Act centres on an £18m payment in connection with the takeover.

 

Whyte - who entered no plea - is being represented by Donald Findlay QC while Alex Prentice QC is now heading the prosecution team in the case.

 

Here is the full indictment of charges that have now been laid out against Whyte.

 

HIGH COURT OF JUSTICIARY AT GLASGOW

 

Continued Preliminary Hearing: 3 October 2016

 

CRAIG THOMAS WHYTE, born 18 January 1971, you are indicted at the instance of Her Majesty’s Advocate, and the charges against you are that:

 

(001) between 1 May 2010 and 9 May 2011, both dates inclusive, at the premises occupied by The Rangers Football Club plc (“Club”), a company incorporated under the Companies Acts, with registration number SC004276, and having its registered office at Ibrox Stadium, 150 Edmiston Drive, Glasgow; Murray Park, Auchenhowie Road, Milngavie; Murray MHL Limited (“Murray”) a company incorporated under the Companies Acts with registration number SC143450 and having its registered office at 10 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh; Dundas and Wilson LLP, Saltire Court, 20 Castle Terrace, Edinburgh; Lloyds Banking Group, New Uberior House, 11 Earl Grey Street, Edinburgh; Dickson Minto WS, 16 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh; Shepherd and Wedderburn LLP, 1 Exchange Crescent, Conference Square, Edinburgh; The Bank of Scotland plc, The Mound Edinburgh; Castle Grant, Granton on Spey, Moray, and elsewhere in Scotland; Merchant Turnaround plc (“Merchant”), a company incorporated under the Companies Acts, with registration number 07116894, and having its registered office at 7 th Floor, Aldermary House, 10 – 15 Queen Street, London and premises at 34 Lime Street and 63 Queen Victoria Street both London; The Merchant House Group having its registered office at 7 th Floor, Aldermary House, 10 – 15 Queen Street, London; Collyer Bristow LLP, 4 Bedford Row, London; the Worthington Group plc, incorporated and registered in England and Wales with registration number 527186 and having its registered office at 1 The Green, Richmond, Surrey; Ticketus LLP a limited liability partnership incorporated and registered in England and Wales with registration number OC341356 and having its registered office at 20 Old Bailey, London; Ticketus 2 LLP a limited liability partnership incorporated and registered in England and Wales with company registration number OC346235 and having its registered office at 20 Old Bailey, London; Octopus Investments Limited, a company incorporated under the Companies Act with registration number 03942880 having its registered office at 20 Old Bailey, London; C Hoare & Co, Private Bankers, 37 Fleet Street and 32 Lowndes Street, both London; Dickson Minto WS, Broadgate Tower, 20 Primrose Street, London; MCR Business Consulting (now Duff & Phelps), 43-45 Portman Square, London; the Dorchester Hotel, London; Clarke Wilmot LLP, 1 George’s Square, Bath Street, Bristol; and elsewhere in England, and at addresses meantime to the prosecutor unknown in France and Monaco, you CRAIG THOMAS WHYTE, with intent to acquire a majority and controlling stake in the shareholding of the Club from Murray through Wavetower Limited a company incorporated under the Companies Acts with registration number 07380537 and having its registered office at 4 Bedford Row, London this being a company incorporated for the purpose of and the means used to effect said acquisition and a company managed and controlled by you and also being a wholly owned subsidiary of Liberty Capital Limited a company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands with registration number 421410 having its registered office at c/o LWB Company Limited, PO Box 92, Road Town, Tortola, this being a company owned by you,

 

(i) did both directly and by the hands of your representatives namely Andrew Ellis, Philip Betts, William Lee, Gary Martin Withey and David Henry Grier, all c/o Police Service of Scotland, Gartcosh, pretend to the Officers of Murray namely Sir David Murray, Michael McGill and David Horne, all c/o Police Service of Scotland, Gartcosh and to the legal representatives of Murray namely Dundas and Wilson LLP that you, Wavetower Limited and Liberty Capital Limited individually or collectively had funds available to make all the payments stipulated by the representatives of Murray as being necessary to enable Wavetower Limited to acquire a controlling and majority stake in the shareholding of the Club from Murray and more particularly did pretend to said representatives in negotiations leading to and within a Share Purchase Agreement dated 6 May 2011 signed and concluded by you on behalf of Wavetower Limited and Liberty Capital Limited with Murray that Wavetower Limited had immediately available from its own and third party resources on an unconditional basis the cash resources necessary:- (a) to meet its obligations under said Agreement to contribute to the Club an amount equal to £5,000,000 for the playing squad, £1,700,000 for a Health and Safety liability and an amount equal to the small tax case liability of £2,800,000 said sums to be held and paid under the terms of the Purchaser’s Solicitor’s Undertaking of even date; (b) to pay the amount required to be paid under the Assignation Agreement dated 5 May 2011 between the Bank of Scotland PLC, Wavetower Limited, the Club and Subsidiaries of £18,000,962.29 and © to fund the reasonably foreseeable ongoing working capital requirements of the Club of £5,000,000,

 

(ii) the truth being as you well knew that said funds were not available and said cash resources were not immediately available on an unconditional basis at the time said Agreements were concluded in respect that the sums pretended by you to represent such immediately available and unconditionally held cash resources in fact comprised £3,925,000 from Merchant Turnaround plc and the Trustees of the and £24,357,094 from Ticketus LLP and Ticketus 2 LLP (“Ticketus”) which was held subject to an agreement or agreements being entered into between the Club and Ticketus after said acquisition in respect of the sale and purchase of season tickets for the three year period following said acquisition,

 

(iii) and you did thereby induce the said Officers of Murray to negotiate, enter into and conclude the said Share Purchase Agreement dated 6 May 2011 between Murray, Wavetower Limited and Liberty Capital Limited and to transfer 92,842,388 of ordinary shares being a majority and controlling stake in the shareholding in the Club, from Murray to Wavetower Limited and did thus obtain through Wavetower Limited 92,842,388 ordinary shares being a majority and controlling stake in the shareholding of the Club by fraud;

 

(002) you CRAIG THOMAS WHYTE, being an officer of a company, namely a director of The Rangers Football Club plc, a company incorporated under the Companies Acts, with company number SC004276 and having its registered office at Ibrox Stadium, 150 Edmiston Drive, Glasgow (hereinafter referred to as the “Club”), and knowing that a person, namely Wavetower Limited, a company incorporated under the Companies Acts, with company number 07380537 and having its registered office at 4 Bedford Row, London (hereinafter referred to as “Wavetower”) had acquired 92,842,388 ordinary shares in the Club from Murray and a liability had been incurred by Wavetower for the purpose of the said acquisition, namely that Wavetower had undertaken, in terms of the Assignation Agreement between Wavetower and the Bank of Scotland plc dated 5 May 2011 and the Share Purchase Agreement between Murray and Wavetower dated 6 May 2011, to pay at least £18,000,000 to the Bank of Scotland plc for an assignation of the debt owed to the Bank of Scotland plc by the Club, did on 9 May 2011 at Ibrox Stadium, 150 Edmiston Drive, Glasgow; Dundas and Wilson LLP, Saltire Court, 20 Castle Terrace, Edinburgh; Lloyds Banking Group, New Uberior House, 11 Earl Grey Street, Edinburgh; Dickson Minto WS, 16 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh; the Bank of Scotland plc, The Mound, Edinburgh; Collyer Bristow LLP, 4 Bedford Row, London, authorise or permit the Club unlawfully to give financial assistance directly or indirectly for the purpose of reducing or discharging the said liability of Wavetower to the Bank of Scotland plc, and at the time said financial assistance was given the Club in which the shares had been acquired was a public company, in that upon appointment as director you did cause the Club to enter into a loan agreement with Wavetower and, in implementation of the said loan agreement, to lend £18,000,000 to Wavetower, which in turn allowed Wavetower to meet its liability incurred to the Bank of Scotland plc for the purpose of the said acquisition: CONTRARY to Sections 678(3) and 680(1) and (2) of the Companies Act 2006.

 

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/full-indictment-charges-against-former-8972114#rlabs=2%20rt$sitewide%20p$5

[forlanssister 3,114]

Years of investigation, millions of £'s spent, hundreds of thousands of documents and they basically fall back to Alastair Jonston's initial complaint of "financial assistance".

 

At least Prentice should bring some competence to the proceedings, God knows it sorely needs some.

[Uilleam 5,939]

Years of investigation, millions of £'s spent, hundreds of thousands of documents and they basically fall back to Alastair Jonston's initial complaint of "financial assistance".

 

At least Prentice should bring some competence to the proceedings, God knows it sorely needs some.

 

I have long feared that the PF/Lord Advocate's Office lacks the wisdom, the wit, or, critically, the will, to push this matter to a proper conclusion.

 

Prentice, QC, may, as you say, bring a degree of professional competence to the party, but, sadly, he is not in charge, but under Instruction. Let us hope that

he is given leeway to prosecute properly, is afforded all cooperation by the Crown, and secures a conviction.

 

What is the likely sentence to follow these charges, presupposing that the sleazebag is found Guilty?

Edited October 3, 2016 by Uilleam

[forlanssister 3,114]

I have long feared that the PF/Lord Advocate's Office lacks the wisdom, the wit, or, critically, the will, to push this matter to a proper conclusion.

 

Prentice, QC, may, as you say, bring a degree of professional competence to the party, but, sadly, he is not in charge, but under Instruction. Let us hope that

he is given leeway to prosecute properly, is afforded all cooperation by the Crown, and secures a conviction.

 

What is the likely sentence to follow these charges, presupposing that the sleazebag is found Guilty?

 

Who could possibly foretell in SNP run Scotland a country that will jail you for singing the Billy Boys yet gives rapists Community Service?

[RANGERRAB 3,670]

Hasn't Whyte already been found guilty of fraudulently obtaining money from ticketus in England ?

And a trustee appointed to try & recover the money? As well as a 15 year directorship ban by the DTI

How are these charges different from the ones in England?

Edited October 3, 2016 by RANGERRAB

[forlanssister 3,114]

Hasn't Whyte already been found guilty of fraudulently obtaining money from ticketus in England ?

And a trustee appointed to try & recover the money? As well as a 15 year directorship ban by the DTI

How are these charges different from the ones in England?

 

In Scotland it's a criminal action in England it was a civil action.

[boabie 230]

Hasn't Whyte already been found guilty of fraudulently obtaining money from ticketus in England ?

And a trustee appointed to try & recover the money? As well as a 15 year directorship ban by the DTI

How are these charges different from the ones in England?

 

That was a civil case as far as I'm aware Rab. He hasn't faced any criminal trial yet.

[JFK-1 1,693]

I have long feared that the PF/Lord Advocate's Office lacks the wisdom, the wit, or, critically, the will, to push this matter to a proper conclusion.

 

Prentice, QC, may, as you say, bring a degree of professional competence to the party, but, sadly, he is not in charge, but under Instruction. Let us hope that

he is given leeway to prosecute properly, is afforded all cooperation by the Crown, and secures a conviction.

 

What is the likely sentence to follow these charges, presupposing that the sleazebag is found Guilty?

 

I think the chances are they will go all out to nail him. This is obvious and undeniable fraud on a significant scale and you only get away with that if you're a bank. The prospect of spending time in Barlinnie will literally scare the shit out of him. In a way it's better that they have taken so long to bring it. Gives him all the more time to be thinking about it night and day.

Edited October 3, 2016 by JFK-1

[pete 2,499]

I think the chances are they will go all out to nail him. This is obvious and undeniable fraud on a significant scale and you only get away with that if you're a bank. The prospect of spending time in Barlinnie will literally scare the shit out of him. In a way it's better that they have taken so long to bring it. Gives him all the more time to be thinking about it night and day.

 

I would say 1 week less than for singing the Billy boys.

[Scott7 6,008]

The Indictment is fatally flawed. They spelled "Grantown" wrongly.