An irate Sir David Murray has condemned as futile the "witchhunt" that led the Scottish Premier League (SPL) to fine the oldco Rangers £250,000 for failing to disclose side-letter payments to staff and players.
The commission appointed by the SPL to investigate the £47.7 million ploughed into Employee Benefit Trusts (EBT) over 10 years for the benefit of staff and players said it would not strip the club of any titles it had won, saying the club did not gain any competitive advantage.
A tribunal ruling in November on the so-called "big tax case" found that the vast majority of the EBTs were loans that could be repaid and therefore not liable for tax from the oldco, which is now in liquidation.
However, this position is being appealed by HM Revenue & Customs.
Former administrators Duff & Phelps said the oldco faced a £73m liability if it lost the big tax case.
Mr Murray, who sold the club to Craig Whyte, said after Lord Nimmo Smith's SPL ruling that "efforts to bayonet the wounded" were "unjustified and of no benefit to the club or Scottish football".
He said: "Despite knowledge of the existence of EBT arrangements for 10 years, the SPL has never explained why this was only raised as an issue last year. The imposition of an irrecoverable fine on an entity which is now in liquidation is futile and only prejudices the ability of existing creditors to recover any money.
"It is saddening that so much time, effort and money has been expended in pursuing a retrospective witchhunt against an entity in crisis, as opposed to seeking to promote and further Scottish football for the benefit of the game and country as a whole."
Lord Nimmo Smith said the side payments, while "not themselves irregular", were "proven contraventions of disclosure rules" and he added: "We ... take a serious view of breach of rules intended to promote sporting integrity."
His judgment revealed Rangers financial director Douglas Odam told the EBT inquiry that the management view was that the disclosure of the side-letter payments may be "detrimental" in terms of tax liability.
The Rangers Supporters Trust called for SPL chief executive Neil Doncaster to resign, branding the EBT inquiry a "fiasco" which had cost the SPL around £400,000 in legal costs and a "blatant waste of money".
Rangers chief executive Charles Green said his decision to refuse to surrender titles, in a deal that would allow the newco membership of the Scottish Football Association, had been "justified" by the SPL commission.
He added that it was "nigh on impossible" for the oldco liquidators BDO to accept the fine liability "at this stage".
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