gersnet article (image) Green, Whyte and the Never-ending Story

[Frankie 8,869]

I don't believe for a minute Murray was duped by Whyte.

 

Was he under pressure to sell by a struggling bank exposed by a financial crisis?  Of course.

 

Was part of the agreement to do so that he could retain important elements of his family business?  Lloyds and AJ suggest so despite SDM's protests to the contrary.

 

Do we really think a businessman of SDM's standing or his banking associates weren't aware of Whyte's bona fides (or lack thereof)?  Pull the other one.

 

As such, as much as various people played their part (especially LBG and HMRC), never let anyone tell you that Sir David Murray acted other than to protect himself throughout with Rangers a distant second in his thoughts and actions.

[Darthter 542]

  On 07/03/2018 at 10:08, DMAA said:

The decision to sell to Whyte without due diligence having been done on him is surely the turning point in the whole saga.

 

He was later (if I remember correctly) revealed to have previously made a fortune from liquidating companies. The newspapers eventually alleged he would personally make £5m from HMRC as a "liquidation payout".

 

For all the blame we can put on others, why on earth did David Murray sell to this man without doing due diligence on him? It seemed as though all Whye had to do was repeat "I'm a huge Rangers fan" and all the questions went away.

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SDM's reason for selling to Whyte are very clear...it was his only way out.  There was no other buyers willing to take on the risk of the EBT case(s).  Whyte wasn't bothered, coz he had no intentions of ever paying it.

[Bluedell 6,042]

  On 07/03/2018 at 10:21, Frankie said:

I don't believe for a minute Murray was duped by Whyte.

 

Was he under pressure to sell by a struggling bank exposed by a financial crisis?  Of course.

 

Was part of the agreement to do so that he could retain important elements of his family business?  Lloyds and AJ suggest so despite SDM's protests to the contrary.

 

Do we really think a businessman of SDM's standing or his banking associates weren't aware of Whyte's bona fides (or lack thereof)?  Pull the other one.

 

As such, as much as various people played their part (especially LBG and HMRC), never let anyone tell you that Sir David Murray acted other than to protect himself throughout with Rangers a distant second in his thoughts and actions.

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SDM and LBG may have been unaware of Whyte's background, due to the fact that they didn't look as they didn't care....although to be fair to SDM, he may have cared in an ideal world, but he didn't have any option but to sell and was doing what he was told.

 

As long as LBG got the overdraft/loan cleared by cash that met money laundering requirements and they didn't have the exposure any more then they were happy and they were obviously dictating what was happening.

 

The commitments put in place for post-purchase funding certainly looked good on paper, but I suspect that SDM and Whyte knew that they were unenforceable, which was proven by future events and the lack of any guilty verdicts.  That's an area where SDM potentially misled the support and the shareholders of the company.

[Frankie 8,869]

  On 07/03/2018 at 11:15, Bluedell said:

SDM and LBG may have been unaware of Whyte's background, due to the fact that they didn't look as they didn't care....although to be fair to SDM, he may have cared in an ideal world, but he didn't have any option but to sell and was doing what he was told.

 

As long as LBG got the overdraft/loan cleared by cash that met money laundering requirements and they didn't have the exposure any more then they were happy and they were obviously dictating what was happening.

 

The commitments put in place for post-purchase funding certainly looked good on paper, but I suspect that SDM and Whyte knew that they were unenforceable, which was proven by future events and the lack of any guilty verdicts.  That's an area where SDM potentially misled the support and the shareholders of the company.

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It should be noted that Murray admitted his group did no due diligence on Whyte and blamed Collyer Bristow for not doing their homework.

 

Alistair Johnston also felt that he and the independent board looking into the deal were misled by Murray and LBG.

 

Going by my own experiences with SDM, the idea he knew nothing about Whyte's background (recorded due diligence or not) just doesn't tally in the slightest.

[DMAA 3,742]

  On 07/03/2018 at 10:21, Frankie said:

Do we really think a businessman of SDM's standing or his banking associates weren't aware of Whyte's bona fides (or lack thereof)? 

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I think that's exactly it. He is a well connected man, and he'd certainly know of a fellow Scot who was so wealthy, never mind the fact he was apparently a huge Rangers fan.

 

SDM had run the club since 1988! He would surely question how Whyte could be such a huge fan and so wealthy and having never met him or have any knowledge of him putting a penny into the club before then.

[Bill 13,717]

The idea SDM didn't know everything about Whyte is preposterous. That kind of diligence is both second nature and easily acquired. It would be easy to be defamatory in describing SDM so care should always be exercised. However, surely only the terminally gullible could still think he was an innocent participant in the troubles of RFC

[Darthter 542]

  On 07/03/2018 at 12:45, Bill said:

The idea SDM didn't know everything about Whyte is preposterous. That kind of diligence is both second nature and easily acquired. It would be easy to be defamatory in describing SDM so care should always be exercised. However, surely only the terminally gullible could still think he was an innocent participant in the troubles of RFC

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SDM might not have known everything about White - that much might be true.....simply because he wasn't interested.  He had someone who (on the surface) was saying all the right things & willing to take the club off his hands.

[forlanssister 3,132]

The claim by Murray that Whyte duped him is frankly insulting. The simple truth is he sacrificed Rangers and did so for no other reason than personal gain. He knew full well what fate awaited Rangers when he handed them over to Whyte.

 

That Lloyds let him cherry pick every thing of value out of his companies before liquidating them reeks to high heaven.

[Bluedell 6,042]

Is the OP giving too much credit to RTC? What actual impact did it have on events that affected our club?

 

SDM, LBG, HMRC, Whyte, Ticketus, Green, Ashley etc could all be investigated for the major impact their actions had, but RTC don't even appear on my radar as far as the events of the past 6 years are concerned.

 

 

 

[Frankie 8,869]

  On 07/03/2018 at 14:08, Bluedell said:

Is the OP giving too much credit to RTC? What actual impact did it have on events that affected our club?

 

SDM, LBG, HMRC, Whyte, Ticketus, Green, Ashley etc could all be investigated for the major impact their actions had, but RTC don't even appear on my radar as far as the events of the past 6 years are concerned.

 

 

 

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I think it's difficult to judge RTC's effect as we simply don't know who was involved.

 

However, if we consider Stuart Cosgrove was a leading light in it's Scottish Football Monitor offspring then that shows the kind of power anonymous blogs can wield.  I doubt RTC conducted the choir per se but it certainly led the singing from time to time.