Craig Whyte admitted last night that more than £20 million of supporters' season ticket money was used to help fund his takeover of Rangers – as the SFA launched an inquiry into the controversial deal.
The Ibrox chairman contradicted his statement of 22 days earlier when he "categorically" assured supporters that the money used to wipe out the £18m owed by the club to Lloyds Banking Group for last May's deal came from one of his companies.
On January 31, Whyte said: "It was funded entirely from one of my companies, and that was demonstrated clearly to the satisfaction of the previous owner, Lloyds Banking Group, and professional advisers".
Yesterday, Whyte said he used advanced funds from mortgaging off season tickets to Ticketus to get rid of the outstanding debt.
He said: "My corporate advisers came to me with the proposition that it was entirely possible, as well as highly beneficial, to negotiate a deal with Ticketus that would allow us to complete the takeover and maximise working capital for the club's day-to-day finances."
He added that he regretted not "making the arrangements more transparent" earlier, because he believed Ticketus wanted the details to remain confidential.
The latest revelations, on another extraordinary day for the club since it went into administration on February 14, came as former judge Lord William Nimmo Smith was appointed to lead the SFA's inquiry, which aims to "flush out" information on Whyte's ownership.
Whyte, who bought Sir David Murray's stake for £1, with the club facing a £49m tax bill, said he regretted the arrangements to mortgage three years of season tickets for around £24.4m.
He said he had given "personal and corporate guarantees" underwriting the ticket agency's "investment" and claimed he was "personally on the line for £27.5m in guarantees and cash".
He added: "By any stretch of the imagination, that is a very substantial commitment to the football club of which I have been a supporter since I was a boy. I am the biggest stakeholder in Rangers and I face huge financial losses personally if the restructuring fails or is not allowed to proceed."
Rangers' joint administrator, David Whitehouse of Duff and Phelps, later said that although the Ticketus deal was worth £20m, plus VAT, only £18m was transferred to Lloyds. He added: "The application of the remainder of these proceeds is subject to further examination.
"We are now investigating all the circumstances surrounding both the purchase of the majority shareholding in Rangers Football Club plc and the flow of funds which stemmed from the transaction and were intended to fulfil the purchasers' obligations at the time of the sale."
Andy Kerr, president of the Rangers Supporters Assembly, accused Whyte of misleading them. He said had Whyte come clean earlier over the season ticket money he would have faced a "hostile reaction".
He added: "The confidence in Craig Whyte is bound to be rock bottom across the majority of fans. We just hope the administrators get to grips with this quickly and get the financial affairs unravelled for us because then we will know where we stand."
Whyte also claimed the £9m owed to the taxman, which took Rangers into administration, was not solely for PAYE and VAT owed from his tenure. He said it includes £4.4m, including penalties in the disputed "wee tax case" which stemmed from Sir David Murray's era. The Herald revealed a week ago that the club agreed £2.9m arrested by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs in the wee tax case had gone to the taxman.
Duff and Phelps had said the losses were
incurred since Whyte took over.
Whyte added: "Any suggestion I am trying to make a fast buck, or have indulged in illegal manoeuvring, is clearly ludicrous."
He pledged to donate most of his shares to the fans and claimed he would step down after the club comes out of administration.
Quoting Rangers manager Ally McCoist, Whyte said: "I am a Rangers fan, and like other Rangers fans, I don't do walking away."
A source at Sir David Murray's Murray Group said: "Mr Whyte's statement simply serves to confirm that neither Murray Group nor Lloyds Banking Group were aware of the existence of any Ticketus arrangements."
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