Two complainers who sparked Police Scotland's Operation Branchform probe into SNP finances are demanding apologies from Peter Murrell and Nicola Sturgeon as the former is sentenced today following his conviction for embezzlement.
Sean Clerkin and David Henry are calling for Murrell, the former SNP chief executive, to apologise for embezzling more than £400,000 from the SNP over 12 years and for Ms Sturgeon to apologise for dismissing scrutiny of party finances after questions were raised.
Both men made complaints to Police Scotland in March 2021 when they were concerned about missing funds with the force later announcing a criminal investigation into the matter.
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In March 2021, after senior party members raised questions about the party's finances, Ms Sturgeon said there was no reason for concern.
She told a meeting of the party's National Executive Committee meeting that month that the party’s finances had “never been stronger” and urged members to be “very careful” about suggesting there were “any problems” with them.
“There are no reasons for people to be concerned about the party’s finances and all of us need to be careful about not suggesting that there is,” she told the meeting in a video that was later leaked to the press.
Three members of the SNP’s finance and audit committee resigned in March 2021 because Murrell refused to show them the accounts.
Murrell, who was SNP chief executive from 2001 to 2023, will be sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh this morning after last month pleading guilty to embezzling more than £400,000 from the party from 2010 to 2022.
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The 61-year-old, who will appear from custody, was married to former First Minister and SNP leader Ms Sturgeon throughout the period of his crime spree.
Ms Sturgeon was First Minister from November 2014 to April 2023 when she stood down, writing a memoir Frankly about her career.
Prosecutors have told the court how Murrell embezzled the funds though his control of the party's bank account and credit cards and by using fake invoices to disguise items he had bought as purchases for the party.
He used the stolen money to buy hundreds of items including a luxury motorhome, two cars, watches, jewellery as well as household and gardening appliances.
Mr Clerkin and Mr Henry, who will be in court to see Murrell sentenced, also want Ms Sturgeon to give any items in her possession that were bought with stolen money to the party.
They want any money Murrell gives back to the SNP as part of a plea deal to be used to refund party members and relatives of people who bequeathed money to the party.
"Peter Murrell has to be contrite to and offer an unqualified apology to the victims, that has not been done by anybody yet. Members of the SNP had their money stolen," Mr Clerkin told The Herald.
"Nicola Sturgeon should not just apologise but return all the goods that she has that were bought as a result of the embezzlement, the pendant, the bookcase that she proudly showed off again and again. Any thing she has that was bought with stolen money should be handed to the SNP, sold off and the money given to the victims."
Mr Henry said: "The least Murrell could do would be to apologise and to give the money back. But there is an apology due from others.
"Nicola Sturgeon was party leader when senior people on the SNP were asking questions about the party's finances and she told people to stop asking questions as everything was fine."
He added: "The fact senior people in the party had concerns should have rang alarm bells to her. But it didn't and Peter Murrell was able to get away with because the treasurer and the party leader didn't see anything wrong.
"I think she should give all the money she has made from her book to the party so people can get their money back. All the items she has bought with stolen money should also be given to the party for the same reason."
Both Mr Clerkin and Mr Henry also want the SNP to refund money to non SNP members who donated to a fundraising campaign for a second independence referendum.
More than £667,000 was raised for the campaign which Ms Sturgeon said would be ringfenced for it.
However, earlier this month First Minister John Swinney said that money had been spent by the SNP.
Mr Clerkin wants Police Scotland to investigate what happened the money. However, the force has declined.
"The SNP have to offer refunds to everybody and the police should re-investigate the £660,000 that was raised for a second independence referendum campaign," he said.
Mr Henry donated a total of £70 to the referendum fund making two separate donations.
"There should be an apology but an apology does just scratch the surface. There are a lot of unanswered questions. There should be an inquiry into how this was allowed to happen," he said.
"It is not credible for the SNP to maintain nothing was wrong. Nicola Sturgeon was told there was something wrong but she shut down all questions."
Ms Sturgeon was arrested in connection with Operation Branchform in June 2023 but was released without charge. She announced last year she and Murrell were to divorce.
Last year Police Scotland announced that she was no longer under investigation.
Ms Sturgeon admitted in an interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday last month that some items illegally acquired by Murrell, her estranged husband and former chief executive of the SNP, such as a £425 pendant from a Shetland jeweller, were given to her as gifts.
"I loved that necklace and I wore it a lot. And this is the other thing. The idea that I would have gone about wearing things that I had known were anything other than what they were presented as, a gift from my husband... to then find out that these were gifts given to me that he'd bought with the party's money causes a level of, I don't know, pain, bewilderment," she said.
She has said she had no reason to disbelieve that Murrell had the means to legally buy the items the purchases, given his high salary, which in May 2022 was £79,750.
She told the programme: “He [Murrell] has allowed me to be on camera with these things, that I thought were birthday presents or Christmas presents or just gifts he bought me as my husband. I’m now in a position where even some of my birthday presents or Christmas presents have turned out to be a lie, and that’s really difficult to come to terms with.”
Murrell is to offer to repay the stolen sum with assets such as his pension when he returns to court for sentencing on June 23.
The offer to presiding judge Lord Young will be made by Murrell's lawyer as part of his bid to receive a lighter sentence.
Ms Sturgeon and the SNP have been approached for comment.
First Minister John Swinney has refused to back an inquiry into SNP finances saying the police investigation was sufficient into the matter though earlier this month Holyrood voted to support an probe into party finances generally.
