Rangers could be owed tens of millions in damages

PAUL MURRAY - who twice tried to save the club from Craig Whyte - has urged liquidators BDO to launch an inquiry into the events surrounding the Rangers scandal.

FORMER Ibrox director Paul Murray last night called for a full-scale probe into the phantom tax bill that shut Rangers down.

And he claimed the club could be owed tens of millions of pounds in damages.

Murray spoke exclusively to Record Sport yesterday following the news on Tuesday that the crisis-ravaged Ibrox outfit has won the Big Tax Case after a two-year legal battle over a potential £80m penalty for the use of EBTs.

And the man who twice tried and failed to save his club from the clutches of Craig Whyte is now demanding answers as to why Rangers were placed in such a perilous position for so long by the authorities.

Former Deutsche Bank high-flyer Murray believes it is now the duty of the club’s liquidators, BDO, to forensically examine the events surrounding the Rangers scandal.

And he believes they may well discover grounds on which lawyers could claw back in excess of £50m in lost revenue and damages.

Murray said: “What we are dealing with here is the destruction of a 140-year-old Scottish institution. That in itself warrants an investigation of some sort.

“The fact that the circumstances surrounding this case remain very complex and unclear further leads to a need for answers as to how and why it was allowed to happen.

“Currently the legal custodians of ‘oldco’ are BDO. So I am calling on them, on behalf of all the stakeholders in Rangers – the shareholders, the fans, the creditors and even the players – to launch an urgent inquiry into how it reached this stage.

“As the custodians, they are morally and legally obliged to get to the bottom of what went on. It is their responsibility to examine the chain of events that led to Rangers’ demise and the actions of those people who were involved in it.

“On the back of that they can potentially pursue damages against any parties who have disadvantaged the club. We could be talking here, at a conservative estimate, of tens of millions of pounds. So I am calling on BDO to start that process as a matter of urgency.”

Murray believes the sums involved – which ironically would be swallowed up by HMRC as oldco’s major creditor – could be astronomical.

Any inquiry would be likely to include analysis of the actions of whole raft of bodies including the oldco's previous bankers, Bank of Scotland and Lloyds, Whyte, Ticketus, Collyer and Bristow, administrators Duff and Phelps, the SFA, SPL and the taxman.

He said: “At a quick glance you can get an idea for the potential sums involved.

“First of all, the shareholders and in particular the Murray Group, potentially lost millions of pounds by selling the club to Craig Whyte for £1. That deal was done on the basis of the tax liability which was hanging over the club. The value of the business was effectively wiped out because of fears about the result of the Big Tax Case.

“We are talking about some very big numbers.”

 

Doubt anything will happen, but questions definitely have to be asked, getting answers could be the tricky part though.

 

Paul Murray's statement abbreviated:

"I call upon BDO to do their job (that they are going to do anyway) and then to chase down money that may be due to the club (that they are going to do anyway) and pay the creditors (that they are going to do anyway.)"

The bizarre bit is at the end though with the complaint about Murray Group losing out one millions because of the big tax case. If they were so confident that they were in the right, why did they sell for just £1?

 

Whar rag ran with this fantasy story?

 

Ciaran in can't read shocker

 

I had only ran my eye over it. The Record eh. Are the Mhedia off the boycott list now?

 

More timmy replies to a Rangers story. Not obsessed though.

 

Now that it's been shown that we were liquidated through no fault of our own, surely it's time to lift the transfer ban?

 

As I understand it, the bank was applying the pressure and no other buyers could be found.

 

Wasn't that for bringing the game into disrepute (Whyte's shennanigans and getting us into admin)?

 

We don't need any players just now anyway. Playing against joe public ffs

 

Or was the disrepute thing about the BTC (financial doping)? Canny mind now.

 

Please pay more attention in the future.

Certian ones yes.

Very good point. Though they say the ban was for Whyte not paying tax.

I don't believe them.

 

That's as far as I needed to read.

Says the bloke commenting on the CL pessimism thread on the CELTIC board.

Obsessed and a hypocritical ****

MADro in can't spell 'certain' shocker.

 

St in angry outburst shocker

 

I'm not a saint

 

Hes been ****in beelin since the tax result came in.

 

No wonder, huge part of his life ruined

 

Imagine what this board would have been like if we'd lost the tribunal

The place would have been crawling with them having us confirmed as cheats

 

Aye, nothing upsets me more than knowing that Rangers died and it turned out they hadn't even done anything wrong. I may even have to seek counselling.

Again, you're right, I'm nearly in ruins knowing that New Rangers are stuck in the 3rd division and you didn't even do anything wrong.

Anyone got a number for a good psychiatrist?

It would probably be like GC was with you lot after Celtic lost 2-1 to Barcelona in Spain.