A COMPANY previously linked to Craig Whyte has had its legal claim for the whole of the £18 million creditors payout pot of the liquidated Rangers plc put on hold because of the on-going club fraud case.
The development will further delay payouts to creditors of the liquidated Rangers oldco.
Rangers FC Group has previously lodged a defence at the Court of Session over its claim, rejected by oldco liquidators BDO, that it is owed up to £25 million. Rangers FC Group says it holds a security over the assets of Rangers oldco RFC 2012 plc.
Rangers FC Group was formerly known as Wavetower, the company Mr Whyte used to buy Sir David Murray’s 85.3% stake in Rangers for a nominal £1 last May.
The Court of Session claim, if successful, would make Rangers FC Group the only secured creditor and first in line ahead of HMRC, even if successful in the Rangers Big Tax Case.
It could also earn Mr Whyte £6 million.
The ongoing criminal case surrounds the 2011 acquisition of Rangers and the 2012 Sevco purchase of the club’s business and assets.
A Scottish Courts spokesman said: "The case has been sisted until the end of the criminal proceedings."
The Rangers FC Group, has taken over the claim from Law Financial Ltd, the company also previously linked to Mr Whyte.
The Herald revealed last month that new documents show that LFL had now taken control of Rangers FC Group which claims to hold the security.
Rangers FC Group says it holds the security over the assets reassigned to the company after an £18m bank debt was paid off as a condition of Mr Whyte's purchase of the club from Sir David Murray in May 2011. He raised funds by organising a deal to sell off three years of future season ticket rights to Ticketus activated when he became owner.
The security over Rangers income and assets was originally set up in 1999 in favour of the Bank of Scotland in response to the club's ballooning debt figure.
Mr Whyte, who presided over the Rangers oldco's plunge into administration in February, 2012, always insisted that the company he used to buy the club had inherited that security over the Ibrox outfit's assets.
Documents showed that ultimate controllers of LFL and the action are the Worthington Group, an investment firm also once connected to Mr Whyte and who in October, 2014, said would continue to stake a legal claim over Rangers’ business and assets.
Worthington Group plc, confirmed in filings two years ago, that when it had the option of purchasing a 100 per cent stake in LFL, it was obliged to pay Mr Whyte £1 million in unsecured convertible loan notes and one third of the proceeds of any assets, claims or rights owned by his companies.
An interim £10 million payout to unsecured creditors of the in-liquidation oldco was due to have been made at the end of July to the tune of around seven pence, but has been held up because of the case.
BDO has previously asked the court to dispense with any potentially time consuming and potentially expensive future hearings.
The liquidators has also previously indicated to creditors that if the claim was pursued, as it has been, it could hold up payouts for some time.
Filings show that Craig Whyte is no longer a director of Rangers FC Group, and the four directors are Worthington Group executives Doug Ware and Richard Spurway, LFL and Liberty Corporate.
Mr Whyte was a founding director of LFL, which claimed to have former Rangers newco Sevco 5088 as a subsidiary, but he stood down from the board in August, 2014.
Worthington Group were approached for comment.
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