JABBA THE AGNIVORE

NOW IT'S ALL HECTOR'S FAULT!

Traynor today has another go at Craig Whyte, again blaming him for everything. He admits that Murray's EBT scheme made Rangers an unattractive proposition but, then again, HMRC are more to blame than Murray! In fact, Traynor is at pains to point out the failings of HMRC, blaming them for all the small businesses losing out.

HMRC apparently allowed the "...situation to worsen when they should have taken swift action." That's Whyte's dodging the PAYE. About the EBT money he says, "you have to wonder why the tax authorities didn’t take the £11m settlement fee offered to them a few years ago." So even the government have got it in for Rangers/Sevco!

So why did HMRC not come to some kind of deal? Well, in any case like this it is usually weighed up which scenario will give the creditors more money: a deal, ie CVA, or liquidation of assets. HMRC decided on the latter. But what's that? The assets are no longer there?

Traynor is quick to point out that Rangers, under Whyte, might have been trading while insolvent, which is, of course, a crime. But is it not a crime also to shaft the creditors by punting off the assets for a song leaving nothing for the liquidators? 

"The football company associated with EBT no longer exists," Traynor says. Er...sorry, Jim, but it does; it hasn't been liquidated yet! Once BDO arrive they surely must look into the activities of Duff and Phelps and Charles Green? Administrators are supposed to be working on behalf of the creditors; not for the benefit of themselves and some mountebank!

So Green can brag about his team being 'debt-free' while all the creditors get nothing because he and the administrators cut a last-minute deal, giving him the assets and them the money they are owed; effectively sticking two fingers up to the creditors, from HMRC to the wee wumman that did face painting. 

Am I the only one that thinks that there is something criminal in all this?

Craig Whyte going off the radar