A Question of diligence

“Due Diligence”

I have to admit I had to look it up to fully understand what it meant. These words keep cropping up in conversations about my club, and I felt it was important to fully appreciate the meaning. For those who haven't yet looked it up let me save you the bother...

"Due diligence" is a term used for a number of concepts involving either an investigation of a business or person prior to signing a contract, or an act with a certain standard of care. It can be a legal obligation, but the term will more commonly apply to voluntary investigations. A common example of due diligence in various industries is the process through which a potential acquirer evaluates a target company or its assets for acquisition.

We shall return to this term and its significance in due course.

This story starts way back in October 2009 with the news that Donald Muir had joined the Rangers board. Described as having “more than 25 years' experience of strategy implementation and business transformation activity internationally in a variety of industry sectors” he was regarded as something of a turnaround specialist. The Rangers support was initially told that Muir, who had a remit to oversee the MIH empire and was not employed by the bank but by Sir David Murray.

The following 2 articles written and published by the Rangersmedia website were composed on the strength of those assurances given to the support.

http://home.rangersm...-the-truth.html

http://home.rangersm...hin-redux-.html

The media also were sown the same line though the ever cynical James Traynor sniffed something was amiss (Even a broken clock is right twice a day)

http://blogs.dailyre...crossroads.html


Its perhaps worthy to mention that by the time Muir was appointed in October 2009, Sir David Murray had stepped down as chairman leaving Alistair Johnston to replace him 2 months previously.

But all was not well and rumours were rife about the exact nature of Donald Muir's role at the club, with matters coming to a head on October 24th 2009 with manager Walter Smith publicly declaring "As far as I'm concerned the bank is running Rangers."

It eventually emerged that Muir's role at the club was not as had been previously described but hat he Muir was placed on the board by Lloyds Banking Group as a condition of them extending Rangers’ credit facilities.

http://www.express.c...sts/view/238170

One begins to wonder. given the events of the last few weeks. if lying to the Rangers support is a condition of ownership.

Moving away from football for a minute to a world undergoing something of a recession Sir David Murray's own business interests were not enjoying the success they once had ,with Lloyds bank having to inject £150 million in equity into the group as the group underwent restructure.

http://www.bbc.co.uk...siness-12975048


Could it be that this, along with the heavily underwritten shares issue in 2004 , was trying the patience of Lloyds with the mercurial entrepreneur ?

Of course by this time Sir David had apparently tired of his plaything, despite assertions years earlier that his bloodline would take over the club after him, and the club was on sale. Of course the news that an alleged misuse of EBT's during Sir David's reign made selling the club akin to Mission Impossible. Well nearly. For Donald Muir during his time at Rangers had produced a Global Prospectus with the intention to attract multi-rich buyers.

http://www.heraldsco...-hunt-1.1027050

Ethan Hawke ? Well I suppose that would added some variety to the vultures already at our club.

But there are those 2 little words again in that article...due diligence. The investigation into these prospective buyers had revealed that they did not meet Sir David's criteria of taking the club forward. Among other things of course. Another name emerged on the scene as well – that of Andrew Ellis, a little known character with something of a questionable past. I assume due diligence was exercised with regard to the aforementioned hence why that interest came to nothing.

Amidst all the doom gloom surrounding Rangers finances a new name appeared on the scene that of Craig Whyte with Donald Muir promoting the sale to Whyte as a viable option for the club.

A quick google search on Craig Whyte actually revealed very little on him, and those who dug a little bit deeper could find little with regard to his finances. Yes some reports have suggested he is a mutli-millionaire or even billionaire. And this may be the case – but the evidence to support this assertion cannot be found in terms of pounds shillings and pence.

But that of course is just the limited searches of your average bear on the internet. I would imagine the due diligence in respect of the take over of a football club and business warrants considerably more investigation than any interested or concerned fan in the street can muster.

The deal of course to sell our club to Craig Whyte of course materialised and the rest as they say is history.

Which leaves me with a number of questions for Donald Muir...and indeed Lloyds Bank.

What process of due diligence was undertaken by Donald Muir that caused him to promote the sale of our club to Whyte.

If any kind of due diligence was carried out why did it not reveal that Andrew Ellis was connected to Craig Whyte ?

If it was undertaken and the Ellis connection was discovered why did the sale go through when an earlier bid appeared to have faltered ?

What we do know is that when our board at the time got wind of the sale to Whyte they resisted it tooth and nail with both Alistair Johnston and Paul Murray trying to raise funds, in a vain to prevent his purchase.

Did they read the same due diligence report on Whyte which Donald Muir had read ?

So what did Alistair Johnston and Paul Murray see that alarmed them so much, yet Donald Muir promoted the sale ?

And 1 final questions for Donald Muir.

Whose interests were you acting when you promoted the sale of Rangers football club to Craig Whyte, Rangers or Lloyds Bank ?