LIQUIDATORS have banked £24 million for Rangers creditors after settling a claim against the solicitors involved in the controversial takeover of the club by Craig Whyte.
The development came as it emerged the firm involved, BDO, had requested detailed explanations from Duff and Phelps, which acted as administrator for Rangers, as part of an investigation into the strategy it implemented in the running of the club.
Duff and Phelps was called in to run the club on February 14, 2012 after its operating company became insolvent over non-payment of tax.
A spokeswoman for BDO confirmed that London-based Collyer Bristow had paid the settlement sum in full, bringing the total potentially available to those owed money from the collapse of the club's business to £28.9m.
But after taking into account liquidators' fees, legal costs and other administrative charges running to a hefty £4.56m, since October, 2012, the creditors' pot stands at £24.3m.
The settled claim surrounded former Rangers owner Mr Whyte and his lawyer Gary Withey, a former Collyer Bristow employee. They have denied wrongdoing.
Craig Whyte bought Rangers for £1 in May, 2011, and eight months later it fell into administration due to £9m of unpaid PAYE and VAT.
Duff & Phelps eventually sold the business and assets of Rangers to a Sevco consortium fronted by Charles Green for £5.5m when a company voluntary arrangement was rejected by HMRC in June 2012.
Mr Whyte is alleged to have struck a deal to complete the purchase of the club by selling off the rights to three years of Rangers season tickets to London-based agency Ticketus to raise £24 million. Most of that was used to pay off the club's £18m debt with Lloyds Banking Group, a condition of the club sale.
The administrator had been suing Collyer Bristow and Mr Whyte's takeover vehicle the Rangers FC Group for at least £25m in damages.
In an update on the liquidation of the old operating company RFC 2012 plc, formerly the Rangers Football Club plc, BDO described the settlement as "an excellent outcome for the creditors of the liquidation estate".
It means that as it stands, unsecured creditors owed potentially up to £160m would get just more than one pound in six of what they were owed, when at one point it looked like they would get nothing.
However, the amount of oldco debt could be cut in half if the taxman fails in its continued pursuit of the so-called Big Tax Case - meaning an even bigger slice of the pot for creditors.
BDO confirmed that £72m of the £94.4m owed to HMRC relies on the taxman's claim that Rangers is liable for a £46.2m bill plus charges over the use of loans to pay players and managers.
HMRC's contest of a decision by a First-Tier Tax Tribunal that deemed the Ibrox club's controversial use of Employment Benefit Trusts legal is expected to make a first appearance in court in January.
Meanwhile the growing scale of the liquidators' and lawyers' expenses has emerged.
BDO confirmed that its remuneration so far stands at nearly £2m while there has been a further £1.5m in legal fees. Nearly £1m has gone to one law firm, Stephenson Harwood, which was instructed on a "no win, no fee" basis over the Collyer Bristow case.
BDO justified the remuneration saying that in this year alone it had undertaken more than 1,200 hours of work.
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