Did Dave King Teach Craig Whyte His Tax Strategy? + Are There 2 Dave Kings?

It is funny how some things seem very simple, yet become very complicated. One such example is that of Dave King, or, with a tip of the hat to TH White, “the once and future Dave King”.

Other people, including Phil Mac Giolla Bhain and Andy Muirhead at Scotzine have written about the position of Mr King as regards the SFA “fit and proper person” test. For what it is worth I would not expect Mr King to have any problems from the SFA with being classed as “fit and proper”.

There is also more to be written about how his position would affect his chances of being appointed to the present PLC Board.

But for now I wanted to look at one of the issues which is fundamental to both of those matters – does Mr King actually have any criminal convictions from his dealings with the South African Revenue Service? You would have thought that was a simple question – either one has a conviction or one does not.

But the Scottish media, perhaps being “spun” by interested parties, have come up with a range of answers.

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Why Doesn’t Rangers Web Statement re Green Match the AIM Announcement?

I wrote last night about the sad end (or is it) to the relationship between Mr Green and Rangers.

But, as regular readers know, I delight in finding nit-picking inconsistencies which might (but probably don’t) signify something bigger.

Ladies and gentlemen, can I offer you the Rangers website statement and the Rangers Stock Market announcement regarding Mr Green’s departure?

A Lesson in Blatant Spinning by Rangers – How It Reported the Charity Investigation Decision

Back in the mists of time, when Duff and Phelps roamed the earth, and only investors in Middle Eastern construction firms and fans of Sheffield United had heard of Charles Green, there was a football match arranged to raise funds for the Rangers Charity Foundation and for the AC Milan charity.

However the nature of the match changed and, in some unexplained (until this week) way, it became a game to raise money for Rangers.

I was amongst the first folk (a month before the game was actually played!) to raise concerns about how a charity could effectively treat the football club with which it was closely connected, and whose Trustees were employees of the football club, as a case for charity despite the terms of its founding deed. You can read what I wrote here and here. The issue was also publicised on Scotzine.com. And I posed a couple of questions for the Trustees here.

The dogged pursuit of the issue however came from the person known as @corsica1968 on Twitter and through their blog which can be found here.  

Is Walter Smith “Widely Acknowledged” as Rangers Most Successful Manager?

One wonders who is responsible for writing the Stock Exchange releases for Rangers. I have mentioned before the fact that, in every LSE statement, there is mention that the “Club” is managed by Ally McCoist “who is still the Club’s all time leading goalscorer”.

One wonders if they will ever mention his managerial skills, which might seem more relevant for investors reading the releases.

One also wonders if the people who write these statements on behalf of Rangers realise that there is such a thing as “over-egging the pudding”.

Yesterday’s statement contained a masterpiece of the art. Did you spot it?

How Headines Can Misrepresent A Story – Rangers and Pinsent Masons Edition

At the end of my post this morning about the Pinsent Masons investigation into “the connections between Craig Whyte and former and current personnel of the Company and its subsidiaries” I wondered how the mainstream media might report matters.

The answer has come quickly.

The BBC has a story, which can be found here, headlined “RANGERS CONFIRM NO LINKS BETWEEN CRAIG WHYTE AND CHARLES GREEN.”

The Scotsman’s website has a similar story here. That has the headline – “RANGERS PROBE FINDS NO GREEN-WHYTE LINKS”.

The Daily Record’s headline, on its story here, is – “RANGERS’ INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION FINDS NO LINKS BETWEEN NEW REGIME AND CRAIG WHYTE”.