Rangers Football Club, through the administrators Duff & Phelps are suing the legal firm Collyer Bristow and Rangers FC Group (formerly Wavetower, the company through which Craig Whyte bought the club) for £25million.
In view of the information I’ve been given I’m surprised that Duff & Phelps themselves are not defendants.
THE BACKGROUND
Do not confuse this case with anything to do with Ticketus. The overall numbers are similar but it’s a different case.
The administrators case is essentially this - that by misrepresenting the Craig Whyte deal the club lost out on £25million which would have flowed into Ibrox via the proposed underwritten sharedeal proposed by Paul Murray in 2011.
THE CRUCIAL MEETING
On Sunday 24th April 2011 the independent committee of directors of the RFC Board met to consider a presentation of the Craig Whyte deal. It is alleged that at that meeting statements were made which Craig Whyte and/or Gary Withey should have corrected as they knew them to be false.
A LITTLE PROBLEM
The administrators pleading of the case fails to mention that David Grier of Duff & Phelps was part of the group making the presentation to the independent committee regarding the takeover.
I’ve looked again at the recent BBC documentary and their copy of the minutes confirms Mr Greir attended.
From an analysis of the published email traffic and other information it is clear that Mr Grier was centrally involved in the construction and management of the Craig Whyte deal both before and after it’s completion - he represented the deal in discussions with the Murray Group and the bank. Perhaps he too may have joined Sir David Murray and others in being duped by Mr Whyte?
At that meeting Mr Whyte, Mr Withey and Mr Grier all spoke, it was a joint presentation. One spoke more than the other two.
If Craig Whyte and Gary Withey are being accused of failing to intervene to correct inaccurate statements made by others at the crucial meeting on 24th April what about the man sitting beside them, or the company in which that man was a partner?