Rangers were dealt a fresh financial blow on Monday after being fined £50,000 by the PLUS Stock Exchange for failing to disclose Craig Whyte's previous disqualification as a director when he completed his takeover of the club last May.
The businessman was disqualified in 2000 for seven years but Rangers did not announce this until November 30, six weeks after the Insolvency Service had confirmed the fact in a BBC documentary. A lengthy statement from PLUS outlined several reasons why they felt the failure to disclose was "a particularly serious breach" of their rules.
Whyte responded by giving a phone interview from Monaco live on Sky Sports News and on the disqualification, he said: "That was disclosed as soon as I was made aware that it needed to be disclosed. It was always a matter of public record relating to events some 16 years ago. Really, this is an irrelevance with everything else that is going on."
PLUS revealed Rangers had sought to challenge their ruling on February 14, the day they went into administration, but administrators Duff and Phelps withdrew the referral to the disciplinary committee last week. Failure to pay the fine within 28 days could result in permanent exclusion.
The SFA have launched an independent inquiry into the activities of the club and whether there have been any breaches of their rules regarding their "fit and proper person" requirement for club officials after being frustrated by the club solicitors' failure to share information.
There was little new information to be gleaned from Whyte's television interview. When asked about "missing millions", Whyte appeared to laugh and said: "There will be absolute clarity from the administrators. There are no missing millions.
"There has been some outrageous and malicious reporting, particularly in the Scottish media, but I can assure Rangers fans that every penny has been accounted for and will be accounted for."
Whyte could offer no timescale on when Rangers might exit from administration and did not want to discuss interest from other parties.
On the subject of potential redundancies, Whyte said: "I'm not aware of exactly what the plan is there but I would hope, like every other Rangers fan, that it's kept to a minimum. But there will be more pain and the administrators are acting in the best long-term interests of the club."
Whyte claimed he hoped to be in Glasgow very soon and added: "I have media following me everywhere. This is one of the toughest jobs I've ever taken on. But I'm not shying away from it. I'll be back in London in the next couple of days and getting on with the job in hand."
Source: PA
