Doc, I agree that Bates had a chance to settle but did not. However, I have not seen the £3.5m figure, just the £1.5m in the Guardian (which as you know is not exactly on Bates' side). The accounts are audited by an independant auditors - and if Leeds paid, then they must have agreed to these as correct (remember that this would have Tax implications so am sure HMRC would also have a say in this). We may not see how the Admin costs are broken up but the auditors and HMRC would have. As regards the last minute debt, this was for Yorkshire Radio and Mark Taylor & Co which took the voting figure to past the magic 75% needed to approve the CVA. The FSF / Astor sum of £17m was already known. KPMG did look at the relationship and were satisfied - so either they did not do a good job - in which case someone should have reported them to the Accountants Institute professional standards body or there was nothing fishy. Plus the additonal debt actually guaranteed we would have a CVA - what killed it was the HMRC challenging the Football Creditors rule - which they also did when Portsmouth went through the same process and HMRC failed to set aside the CVA. Again people comment on Bates' "crooked business" - and yet he is free to operate and no one from the Fraud Squad or the Dept for Business (which regulates companies and checks on directors) is investigating. So only Leeds fans can see this "crookedness"? Have you reported this "crookedness" to the police - remember as a citizen you have the right (even obligation) to report criminal activities? As I said earlier, I have no agenda nor am I a Bates apologist, just stating facts (with what I percieve to be good provenance).
