SENTINELCELTS

The news that John James had messed up the password to his site and inadvertently given last week’s scoop a wider audience, reminded me of that other scoop.

• Charlotte Fakes.

In that light, I looked back at some of my notes on that affair.

Going back to the early days of the Whytewash at Ibrox, a company called The Worthington Group came to our attention via the Charlotte Fakes episode.

The Worthington Group were linked to Craig Whyte and another character called Aidan Earley.
Both men acquired an interest in the company in 2010, shortly before the drama at Rangers became a crisis.

Prior to the infamous 2011 – £1 purchase of Rangers by Craig Whyte, The Worthington Group made a £3m deposit, (from a company pension fund) into an account controlled by Craig Whyte’s solicitors Collyer Briscoe. The £3m was deposited in the name : Jerome Group Pension Fund.

“Scheme linked to former Rangers owner demands £3m back from club.”

12 March 2012

“Trustees of the Jerome Group Pension Fund have begun proceedings to recover almost £3m from the administrators of Glasgow Rangers FC.

Jerome Group’s parent company Worthington – part-owned by former Rangers chairman Craig Whyte – released a statement today confirming the money had been provided to the club’s solicitors…”

Professional Pensions.com

Also in that account was the Ticketus money (£24m) and a further £1m from a now liquidated company, related to Whyte called Merchant Turnaround plc.

Whyte’s contact at Collyer Briscoe was the late Gary Withey. He was a corporate finance partner at the law firm. Collyer Briscoe, made a £24m settlement, to liquidators, BDO in 2014.

BDO had asked Collyer Briscoe and Duff and Phelps, the firm originally appointed as Rangers’ administrators, for “detailed explanations regarding certain aspects of the strategy implemented by them” during the administration.

There is a reference to a settlement of £7.5m by the “previous joint administrators” in BDO’s December 2022 report.

Worthington’s “plan was to provide £3m in working capital to Rangers (Craig Whyte) secured by a ‘robust charge’ over the almost £100m of audited gross assets owned by the Club and by the assignment of the Lloyd’s debenture to the (Worthington) pension fund, providing the interest and bullet payment eliminated the pension deficit.”

In the report issued by BDO in December of 2022, the Liquidation Estate of Rangers Plc was valued at £5.8m.

Rangers entered litigation before the £3m of the Worthington pensioners money was used (according to Aidan Earley).

• Fingers crossed for the Worthington pensioners.

As the administration reached a fevered pitch, Aidan Earley apparently introduced Imran Ahmed and Charles Green to Craig Whyte.(?).

Sevco 5088 Ltd was born as a bid vehicle. An auction for the assets of Rangers was conducted by Duff and Phelps.

Sevco 5088 Ltd’s £5.5m bid of was successful.

According to Aidan Earley, Ahmed and Green then broke their agreement and transferred the assets into another ‘vehicle’ Sevco Scotland Ltd (“apparently with the complicity of Duff and Phelps.”)

The assets of Sevco Scotland Ltd were then allegedly transferred by Green to, “The Rangers International Football Club Plc.”

If we believe the popular narrative Aidan Earley and Craig Whyte were a trifle nonplussed.

From here further confusion ensued…

Because of concerns about the actions of Charles Green and others, Worthington set out to defend their interests in Rangers/Sevco.

At one point in 2012 The Worthington Group claimed to have…

“various actual and potential claims against various parties associated with the Rangers Football Club.These include the RFC 2012 plc, Rangers International Football Club plc (“RIFC”), Sevco Scotland Limited, Imran Ahmed, Charles Green, Paul Clarke, David Whitehouse, David Grier and Duff and Phelps, the former administrators of RIFC 2012. Worthington through it’s subsidiary Sevco 5088 has a claim against all the assets of currently said to be owned by RIFC. This means the current board of RIFC would find it difficult to obtain commercial funding secured on these assets while such a potential claim exists ”

That wasn’t going to go down well.

Remember Alistair Johnston (US based ex-Ibrox Chairman) had already personally handed a file detailing Whyte’s time at Ibrox to the then Strathclyde Police.

In December of 2016, Joe McHugh’s blog contained a link to a document, produced by the Worthington Group, highlighting a number of allegations against Dave King and a blogger called Tom Winnifrith.

As the story goes, the stolen emails that made up the Charlotte Fakes ‘dossier’ were allegedly bought by King for £25,000 and some of the illicit material somehow found its way onto Winnifrith’s blog.

“King named in Charlotte Fakes case” :
videocelts.com

https://videocelts.com/2016/12/blogs/latest-news/king-named-in-charlotte-fakes-case/

The document in Joe’s blog called ‘the Worthington Group’ is worth a read.

Worthington claimed that the Charlotte’s Fakes material was used to put the company under pressure and undermine their commercial activities.

Winnifrith is an interesting character from planted stock in Co Donegal. He’s a Unionist with a somewhat chequered past.

A public school rugger type, a posh, self- styled freethinker, with a strong work ethic. Despite numerous business and personal difficulties, he seems to see himself as a paragon of virtue, with a flair for the stock market.

Reading Winnifrith’s later work on the Ibrox shenanigans, he seems to have rejected the later financial toxicity at Ibrox under the glib and shameless one.

He’s tenacious and given his background an ideal candidate to expose any white collar skullduggery.

The Worthington Group alleged Winnifrith also used a stock market advisory site, linked to him called Share Prophets. Remember King supposedly bought the cache of stolen Charlotte Fakes material.

As the dispute intensified Aidan Earley claims he obtained an injunction against Winnifrith on behalf of the Worthington Group (this was set aside as Earley failed to disclose his own financial shortcomings).

Winnifrith later agreed to stop posting allegations against the Worthington Group (according to Aidan Earley).

Earley then claims a blogger called ‘Peter’James* started publishing Charlotte Fakes material with links to Tom Winnifirth’s site.

I’ve periodically read Tom’s output for a while.

An interesting guy –

https://twitter.com/TomWinnifrith?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

As for Mr Earley…

On October 20th 2022 the FCA began criminal proceedings against five individuals involved with Worthington Group plc.

https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/fca-begins-criminal-proceedings-against-five-individuals-involved-worthington-group-plc

One to watch…

The reputational damage to Scotland cannot be underestimated by this affair. The Liquidation Estate of the Rangers Football Club plc realised £37.3m.

£31.5m of that figure came via settlements from Collyer Briscoe and Duff and Phelps. .

These settlements relate to the manner in which Whyte purchased Rangers and the later sale of the assets to Charles Green.

One wonders what the legal standing of the current club is?

Apart from those realisations from professional bodies involved in the debacle, the Rangers Estate raised £5.8m

£24m. Collyer Briscoe.
£7.5m. Duff and Phelps.
£2.3m. Administration surplus.
£2.3m. Book debts.

£37.3m. BDO assest realisations.
£26.3m. Cost of realisations.

£64.5m. HMRC cumulative claim.
£56m. Negotiated settlement figure.

What percentage in the £ is Charles III is likely to receive is anyone’s guess.

£55.5m. Compensation for Malicious Prosecutions (and rising).

…£15.5m to Kroll, a rebranded Duff and Phelps.

…£21million paid to staff members David Whitehouse and Paul Clark, with a further £3m awarded to the duo for legal expenses.

Scottish taxpayer picking up the tab.

Senior legal figures reputations tarnished.

Police Scotland a laughing stock.

Homes and businesses raided.

Media missing in action.

Unknown legal costs.

Administration of Scottish football complicit.

5 WA and LNS.

Celtic Plc implicated.

Integrity of Scottish Government undermined.

Sir David Murray remains the toast of Edinburgh.

Not bad for a pound.

*Nothing to do with Peter James the highly respected author.