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EBTs: The gift that keeps on giving

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Sir David Murray was a thorn in our collective psyche for a period of years, he could boast a private jet, limousines, massive land holdings and 10 quid for our 5. His team always fared well against the top referees like Hugh Dallas and the papers loved everything he and his team did so much that they STILL wont ask any questions about there being any wrongdoing.

However, taking the above paragraph as the entire biography would be flawed, the latter chapters are of much more value to the reader. After years of triumphalism you see, they died. The main reason of course was that they did not pay tax or PAYE, but at the same time they skipped these payments, the banks called in loans thinking that the EBT scandal would go against the club. The Oldco had no chance of repaying and therefore Rangers* went into administration and then liquidation due to the fear of a negative Tax Case revolving around EBTs.
Now the EBTs have come back in a tangible and a hypothetical way. Tangibly, the EBTs are going to be in the mail box of every Rangers player to have put their snout in Murray’s trough and gorge on the tax free goodness. HMRC are saying, you can keep your trophies, we will have your house and the Beemer in the drive. Worrying if Darren O’Dea is going to be wearing your tainted medals is the last of your problems now.

Hypothetically there is of course a much greater issue, it is known as the 5 way agreement. If these EBTs do indeed need repaying, the club (Sevco or Newco Rangers) may need to pay (Oldco Rangers) bills on the matter. After all to have all forms of SFA procedure put to the side and this agreement in place is the corner stone of the illusions. Now the SFA, SPL, SFL, Oldco and Sevco have signed up to an agreement which we are told is to cover financial contingencies surrounding Rangers*.

If it were a club with unbroken history the methodology would be simple, that club regardless of who owned it at the time of the indiscretions would be fined and sanctioned. Now in the loony tunes era of holding companies we will likely hear that these debts belong to a different company which represents the same club. The club has no legal personality so should be above the law by that definition and the company is currently in liquidation and unable to meet its obligations.

However under the 5 way agreement, if there is a contingency to pay off footballing debts that may arise from the Oldco, then Sevco must be held accountable. It is immaterial if the debts belong to another company, the Newco were given permission to skip on 3 years of accounts and claim a dead clubs history by reaching this agreement. The deal was signed of course after Oldco had won the first of 3 court cases against HMRC. Things have changed substantially since then and the debts that the signatories had supposed would never return has come back to roost.

It is here that there is an opportunity to laugh at the greatest Spivs in Corporate Scotland. SDM with Dave King as a board member riddled the club with illegalities and then sold it all off for a pound. Craig Whyte then killed them, he had meetings with Charles Green months before the Liquidators were called and they together planned the death of the Oldco. Green then threw Whyte under a bus, stole his Sevco 5088 company which owns Ibrox and Murray Park and waved the fleg with his big Yorkshire hands. Green then left, but not before signing the 5 way agreement, which circumvented due process and launched the survival debate.

Now we are back at the start, Dave King has inherited a club which has financial issues revolving around not paying tax properly. He should know, he was a board member when the scheme was used. Now if the Newco wants to continue its use of a dead teams trophy list it will have the opportunity to pay for these trophies posthumously. Rangers* never paid the price for their ill gotten wealth, but when all their heroes are homeless and bankrupt, the money they raise goes to creditors and when Ibrox comes down brick by brick, then the consequences of their actions will teach the shame a lesson for their deceit.

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