“Charlotte Fakes” – Red Herrings for Rangers or Smoking Guns for Green and Whyte?

Over recent days various documents have appeared online under the name “Charlotte Fakes” seeming to refer to the dealings involving Craig Whyte, Charles Green and Rangers.

I have not commented on them in detail so far for various reasons.

First of all, I have been very busy and it would take time, from what I have seen of them, for proper analysis of the documents.

Secondly, until things are made clear, the veracity of the documents is uncertain. That is not to say that they are fakes, or doctored, or as in the case of invoices involving Rangers and Ticketus, created using clip-art!

At first look they seem to have the appearance of being genuine, but until confirmed either way that can only be guesswork. If however the documents have been created to mislead, then that is a lot of effort, for uncertain effect.

Worthington PLC Claim To Have Reported Charles Green and Imran Ahmad to the Serious Fraud Office

As a preamble, it has not been made clear what the basis for the above report is. Undoubtedly Messrs Green and Ahmad will maintain, as they are entitled to do, that they are not guilty of any offence and in law they remain innocent men until a criminal court declares otherwise. There is a big difference between a report being made to the police or the SFO and such a report being accepted as credible and reliable. Even then, there remains some distance to go before evidence of criminality sufficient to mount a prosecution can be produced, and even then there is a further stretch to reaching the standard for a conviction in court. Most complaints to the police result in no action at all, as the matter falls at one of the above hurdles.

So, to end the preamble, accusations are not proof, and the reporting that such a report has been made should in no way be taken as a statement that the parties mentioned have done anything wrong. There is a long way from accusation to conviction, and my comments on the whole matter should not be taken as implying that there has been any wrongdoing by anyone.

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Two Stock Market announcements today, which make it clear that all parties are very serious and that this issue is not going away any time soon.

First of all RIFC PLC came out in almost as “all guns blazing” a way which one can in a Stock Exchange announcement.

In light of the recent media speculation in relation to alleged claims which are purported to have been made by Craig Whyte, Aidan Earley, Law Financial Limited or Worthington Group plc in relation to the ownership or control of Sevco 5088 Limited (“Sevco 5088”), Rangers confirms that no legal claim has been received by Charles Green, Imran Ahmad or the Group.   As none of the allegations that have been made in the press have been substantiated by evidence of any legally enforceable rights and as details of any claim, whilst threatened, have not been received, the company regards any such press commentary and speculation to be highly spurious.  The Group has been and continues to receive legal advice to protect the business, assets and reputation of the company and its directors from such spurious claims.

Charles Green Denies Whyte/Sevco 5088 Documents Are “Correct or Valid” – But Are They Genuine?

Late last night (Friday) the following statement appeared on the Rangers official website. You can read it in situ here.

I have posted my comments in bold and indented beneath the relevant parts of the statement. I then end with a brief (yes, I know what you are thinking) conclusion.

Before I start, it is headed “Charles Green Statement” and then, as readers will see, is actually by a “spokesman” for Mr Green. It is not billed as a “Rangers Statement”. Might that be significant?

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FOLLOWING the publication and broadcast of misleading and inaccurate information on STV this evening, a spokesman for Charles Green said: “Mr Green is appalled by this blatant attempt to discredit him.

A hard-hitting start. The information broadcast by STV was “misleading and inaccurate”. I am sure the statement will tell us in what ways.

Sevco 5088 Registered Office Now Changed to Craig Whyte’s Corporate Base

Rarely can there have been as much interest in a company which is on the verge of being struck off the Register of Companies as there is in Sevco 5088 Ltd.

This is the company formed for Charles Green and which was granted exclusivity to negotiate the deal to buy the assets of Rangers from Duff and Phelps. In addition Duff and Phelps made very clear that Sevco 5088 Ltd had a binding agreement to buy the assets if the CVA plan failed, as it did.

However the assets ended up in the hands of Sevco Scotland Ltd instead. Either they went to that company as Sevco 5088 Ltd’s nominee or it transferred the assets after purchase to that company or somehow Duff and Phelps forgot about Sevco 5088 Ltd and simply dealt with Sevco Scotland Ltd, a wholly unrelated company, only sharing Mr Green as Director.

Guess Who Has Been Ordered to Pay Legal Costs of 5 Players With Whom It Was In Dispute?

There are occasional moments, when I have had my last mug of tea for the day (Vanilla Earl Grey, if you’re putting the kettle on thank you) and I think if I should write a blog post for the next morning. Has anything happened which justifies me looking at the legalities of some situation?

On those occasions I can generally depend on one particular football team to be involved in something which has a legal aspect to it.

People ask me why I keep writing about Rangers – is it an obsession?

The short answer is that there has been no other entity in Scotland which has been involved in so many different aspects of the law over the last two years.

Tax, company law, insolvency, family law, damages claims, breach of contract, employment law, defamation, privilege, Data Protection, breach of confidence … you name it, and it has been there.