Latest view from Private Eye Magazine
Have been right on the money for a while now, also throw in the odd related interesting tale.
Planet Football - Rangers
Rangers directors were assured by solicitor Gary Withey, then (but no longer) of Collyer Bristow, that his client Craig Whyte had the funds not just to repay BOS £18M but also to provide working capital of £5m.
Collyer Bristow had been provided with "written assurances from a UK financial institution".
It is now suggested that the institution may have been none other than Merchant House Group (MHG), where Whyte was a major shareholder with influence on the board. Furthermore, Whyte was said by MHG to have more than £30m available to spend. If this is true,then clearly MHG as well as Withey were misled. BOS was paid from the sale of Rangers future ticket revenue.
After Whyte had been disqualified as a director in 2000 he came to the attention of the Companies Investigation Branch (CIB) when he started making moves on financially troubled shoe firm FII Group, where his old pal Aidan Earley was a player. By September 2002 Monaco company Lebron Holdings Services had acquired a more than 5% stake. Lebron and Whyte were previously linked at failed Re-Tex Plastic Technology.
The CIB was contacted by the FII pension fund trustees, who were concerned about Whyte and Earley's intentions. The CIB monitored Whyte's telephone calls from Monaco, with the help of the security services. Any deal fell through, so the CIB took no further action.
FII collapsed in 2004, largely due to its pension fund deficit.
It's not actually a sanction though. There are two issues here - RFC going bust and RFC breaking the rules. If RFC go bust - i.e. are liquidated it is the concept of a new and different club being allowed to take their place in the top league because they have affiliated themselves to the old huns. Morally they have less right to that place than Stirling Albion or Brechin Cty for example.