BDO lose BTC appeal

[ian1964 10,761]

Celtic legend Davie Hay has called upon the Scottish football authorities to seriously consider sanctions against Rangers after HMRC were victorious in the so-called ‘big tax case’, up to and including the stripping of titles.

 

A statement from Celtic on Wednesday called upon the authorities to review the case once more in light of the verdict, and Hay agrees that new punishments should now be considered for Rangers due to their use of EBTs.

 

And he has called upon the SPFL to show backbone on the issue, and not be afraid to put a line through the 14 honours gained by the Ibrox club during the period they used the payment scheme.

 

“I know that people might think I’m only saying this because of my connections with Celtic, but I think the SPFL have to seriously look at sanctions against Rangers now, even if that means stripping titles,” Hay said.

 

“If they have been found to have gained an advantage by foul means, then that is the only fair thing to do. “Personally, I don’t really care if Celtic or any other side who lost out are given the titles or trophies that would be taken from Rangers.

 

“In the Olympics, if a runner gets the gold medal years later after the winner at the time is found to have cheated by taking drugs, then it is never really the same. “For me, this amounts to a similar situation, so perhaps the most common-sense thing to do is simply to strike those honours from the record books.

 

“I try to be an impartial observer, and I think if anyone from outside this situation were to look at the facts, that would be the common-sense outcome. “The Scottish football authorities need to be strong with this. When sides have been found to have breached financial rules elsewhere, then they have received those sorts of punishments. It happened to Juventus in Italy, so why not here?

 

“I’m not saying this through sour grapes, although Rangers supporters will probably see it that way, but from a position of trying to protect the integrity and fairness of our game.”

Hay was puzzled, if not surprised, by the statement made by the SFA in relation to the Supreme Court verdict on Wednesday, where they seemed to rule out any further action being taken against Rangers.

 

He feels that the findings of the independent commission chaired by Lord Nimmo Smith are now obsolete, and that the SPFL have adopted the right approach in taking their time to consider the ramifications of the verdict.

 

“It seems to me as if the SFA have jumped the gun a bit here,” he said. “I don’t understand how they can come to the conclusion so quickly that no further action against Rangers is possible.

 

“The ball is obviously in the SPFL’s court now, and with this verdict now having been made, they have to seriously look at all the facts and consider the implications of what they do next.

 

“Nobody wants to see such turmoil in the game, but the fact of the matter is that they must look at all of the options that are open to them, and if title-stripping is the most appropriate course of action according to the rules, then so be it.”

 

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/sport/15396483.Celtic_legend_Davie_Hay_urges_authorities_to_be_strong_and_consider_stripping_titles_from_Rangers/

[ian1964 10,761]

Bank linked to Celtic's biggest shareholder Dermot Desmond fined £70m for ties to crime.

 

A BANK partly owned and run by Celtic’s biggest shareholder Dermot Desmond has been hit with a record French fine for facilitating industrial-scale tax evasion.

 

court in Paris told Latvian-based Rietumu Banka to pay the equivalent of its annual profits – about £70 million – for its part in a vast scheme to help businesses and individuals defraud the state of up to 10 times as much revenue.

 

The French court declared that at least €200m of unpaid tax had been laundered through the bank. Prosecutors had said the figure could be up to €850m.

 

Mr Desmond has owned just under a third of Rietumu Banku for more than a decade and sat on the institution’s management board throughout the period under scrutiny from French authorities, from 2007 to 2012.

 

Prosecutors convinced the court the bank was an “indispensable link” in what they called a vast scheme to criminally evade tax led by a financier called Nadav Bensoussan, and his company, France Offshore.

 

Judge Benedicte de Perthuis, whose court specialises in high-value tax crime crime, said Rietumu could not ignore the fraudulent nature of the funds. She said: “It was part of its business strategy in France.”

 

The Herald contacted the office of Mr Desmond, an Irish-born tax exile, seeking a comment on yesterday’s conviction of Rietumu. There was no response. Mr Desmond was not named in court proceedings. There has been no suggestion the billionaire, as a shareholder or board member, had any knowledge or involvement in any wrongdoing.

 

However, one of his fellow board members at the bank, its president, Alexander Pankov, was given a four-year suspended prison sentence.

 

The organiser of the scheme, Bensoussan, who had boasted he could provide a “tax haven for all”, was jailed for two years with a further three years suspended. The court also barred Rietumu from operating in France for five years.

 

A bank spokeswoman said: “At this moment it can be said we strongly disagree with the decision and this decision will be appealed. “We have never been involved in the tax evasion and that neither the bank, nor its president personally, had any interest in these actions. Therefore, the imposed fine and sanctions against the president of the bank appear widely ungrounded.”

 

French investigators have accused the bank of not co-operating during their five-year investigation. Rietumu denies this and stresses it always met anti-money-laundering regulations in its own country. The bank will not have to pay the fine – which is worth almost as much as Celtic, valued yesterday on the stock markets at £95m – until it has exhausted appeal proceedings. Rietumu, however, said it had made provisions to pay the fine.

 

The Herald has previously reported that agencies sell off-the-peg Scottish limited partnerships – which until reforms announced last month could be owned anonymous – with accounts at Rietumu Banka. One such account was frozen by Ukrainian authorities investigating an allegedly corrupt MP. Neither the bank nor Mr Desmond commented on this.

 

Rietumu has previously been fined by its own regulator, which is under pressure from the European Union and United States to clean up its non-resident banks, for breaching money-laundering regulations.

 

At a trial earlier this year the court, Le Tribunal Correctionnel de Paris, heard Bensoussan would bill clients for providing internet shell companies and accounts at Rietumu to hide their wealth from tax authorities.

 

“I told myself it was tolerated,” said the 38-year-old self-taught financier. Last year chief prosecutor on the case, Ulrika Delaunay-Weiss, was asked by Latvia’s public broadcaster LSM’s De Facto if Rietumu willingly collaborated with money laundering rather than doing so inadvertently. She replied: “That’s the position of the investigating judge.”

 

She added: “That’s why he charged them. He thinks because of different elements that the bank and some of the responsible persons there knew that it was ... how can I say ... a system of money laundering.”

 

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/15396520.Bank_linked_to_Celtic_s_biggest_shareholder_Dermot_Desmond_fined___70m_for_ties_to_crime/

[Uilleam 5,964]

So did Whyte actually save Rangers after all ( whether intentionally or not) ?

 

The club and its assets had to be taken out the oldco & transferred to a newco before the BTC bill landed.

 

Whyte did that albeit by dubious means so did he effectively save Rangers ?

 

In my view, Whyte acquired Rangers with the sole view of driving it onto the rocks. Any interest he had in 'saving Rangers' was related solely to how much money he could make.

A more responsible owner may -would- not have been able to deal with the BTC, but the processes resulting from that level of debt would have been handled better, more transparently, and the Club, and the assets, tangible and intangible, in all likelihood would not have ended up in the hands of the whores, rogues, and comic singers they did, thanks to Whyte's initial acquisition.

[ian1964 10,761]

The thing I've always thought about when the Rangers haters trot out this line about ''signing players using EBTs' gives us a sporting advantage'', well since we were voted out of the top league into the bottom league our players all earned more wages than our opponents, and especially looking at the EL defeat only proves that paying players more money gives you no sporting advantage!.

[StuGers 477]

Celtic legend Davie Hay has called upon the Scottish football authorities to seriously consider sanctions against Rangers after HMRC were victorious in the so-called ‘big tax case’, up to and including the stripping of titles.

 

A statement from Celtic on Wednesday called upon the authorities to review the case once more in light of the verdict, and Hay agrees that new punishments should now be considered for Rangers due to their use of EBTs.

 

And he has called upon the SPFL to show backbone on the issue, and not be afraid to put a line through the 14 honours gained by the Ibrox club during the period they used the payment scheme.

 

“I know that people might think I’m only saying this because of my connections with Celtic, but I think the SPFL have to seriously look at sanctions against Rangers now, even if that means stripping titles,” Hay said.

 

“If they have been found to have gained an advantage by foul means, then that is the only fair thing to do. “Personally, I don’t really care if Celtic or any other side who lost out are given the titles or trophies that would be taken from Rangers.

 

“In the Olympics, if a runner gets the gold medal years later after the winner at the time is found to have cheated by taking drugs, then it is never really the same. “For me, this amounts to a similar situation, so perhaps the most common-sense thing to do is simply to strike those honours from the record books.

 

“I try to be an impartial observer, and I think if anyone from outside this situation were to look at the facts, that would be the common-sense outcome. “The Scottish football authorities need to be strong with this. When sides have been found to have breached financial rules elsewhere, then they have received those sorts of punishments. It happened to Juventus in Italy, so why not here?

 

“I’m not saying this through sour grapes, although Rangers supporters will probably see it that way, but from a position of trying to protect the integrity and fairness of our game.”

Hay was puzzled, if not surprised, by the statement made by the SFA in relation to the Supreme Court verdict on Wednesday, where they seemed to rule out any further action being taken against Rangers.

 

He feels that the findings of the independent commission chaired by Lord Nimmo Smith are now obsolete, and that the SPFL have adopted the right approach in taking their time to consider the ramifications of the verdict.

 

“It seems to me as if the SFA have jumped the gun a bit here,” he said. “I don’t understand how they can come to the conclusion so quickly that no further action against Rangers is possible.

 

“The ball is obviously in the SPFL’s court now, and with this verdict now having been made, they have to seriously look at all the facts and consider the implications of what they do next.

 

“Nobody wants to see such turmoil in the game, but the fact of the matter is that they must look at all of the options that are open to them, and if title-stripping is the most appropriate course of action according to the rules, then so be it.”

 

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/sport/15396483.Celtic_legend_Davie_Hay_urges_authorities_to_be_strong_and_consider_stripping_titles_from_Rangers/

 

The issue I have with that article is that in a section which is not attributed to the rambling of Hay, the author questions whether the SFA "have the backbone" to strip titles, insinuating that if they don't, they are cowards. This is the kind of subtle (or not so subtle) attacks that will constantly rise up over the next few months, whipping the moonhowlers and those on the periphery into a bloodletting. And we all know who's behind it.

[der Berliner 3,809]

It is a similar scenario that we had in 2012, where various people voice their opinions on topics that should not concern them, and in a way that proves that they don't understand what is actually going on, but clearly shows what they want.

 

Given that this is an "ongoing case", as the SPFL has been quite thus far, you wonder why the club or some major shareholder like Club1872 have not put out a statement saying that they will actively and proactively pursue any blackmail and libel the club will face from individuals and news outlets. The RFFF has the funds to defend us, and I don't doubt that the combined Rangers support would be willing to financially back any legal cases against these detractors.

 

A simple statement that the club is in talks with the SPFL would also be good, as it may quiten some voices ... and nerves.

 

(And maybe we hire Donald Findlay QC, so we have a decent chance of pulling this off.)

Edited July 7, 2017 by der Berliner

[ian1964 10,761]

It is a similar scenario that we had in 2012, where various people voice their opinions on topics that should not concern them, and in a way that proves that they don't understand what is actually going on, but clearly shows what they want.

 

Given that this is an "ongoing case", as the SPFL has been quite thus far, you wonder why the club or some major shareholder like Club1872 have not put out a statement saying that they will actively and proactively pursue any blackmail and libel the club will face from individuals and news outlets. The RFFF has the funds to defend us, and I don't doubt that the combined Rangers support would be willing to financially back any legal cases against these detractors.

 

A simple statement that the club is in talks with the SPFL would also be good, as it may quiten some voices ... and nerves.

 

(And maybe we hire Donald Findlay QC, so we have a decent chance of pulling this off.)

 

I'm not sure we need a statement from the club or club1872!, if any of these journalists??, or official quotes from any club that are illegal then I would just prefer the club to take them to court, that in itself would be statement enough!.

[der Berliner 3,809]

I'm not sure we need a statement from the club or club1872!, if any of these journalists??, or official quotes from any club that are illegal then I would just prefer the club to take them to court, that in itself would be statement enough!.

 

Calling us cheats openly, continuously, and against the facts, constitutes libel, doesn't it? Linfield went in very quick here, but we see no reaction after about 2 full days of public defamation from us. I don't mind who says a word on this, but some official word would be good still.

[ian1964 10,761]

Calling us cheats openly, continuously, and against the facts, constitutes libel, doesn't it? Linfield went in very quick here, but we see no reaction after about 2 full days of public defamation from us. I don't mind who says a word on this, but some official word would be good still.

 

As I said, if they are libelous then just go after them through the courts!, no need for a statement imo

[RANGERRAB 3,743]

Hay should ask his own club about the special banking arrangements his club had with the co-op bank. Ultra soft loans & overdrafts