You can ask!
I believe any reporting is 'confidential'.
There are relatively few SFO prosecutions of company directors for alleged dodgy dealings
The conviction rate for the matters that SFO do pursue is a lot lower than the general criminal conviction rate
The reason is that dishonesty (which is obviously a fundamental requisite) and an intention to defraud are very difficult to prove in cases involving complex company financial movements
they were not worth £5.5m TRS that was the original cost of the contracts that had been purchased. The contracts are written down over the period of the contract. By 31/05/11 the actual worth of those contracts was £1.8m. By say 31/05/12 how many players were in the squad that we had actually paid for? How many of that 23 were still left because they were sold, paid off or out of contract ? What if players with no contract previously or an expired contract were signed on by CCFC H? Why do you think that TF has made a big thing of beneficial ownership by CCFC H ?
Pheonixing is usually the trade turning up in an entirely new company often with a similar name...... in this case CCFC H owned CCFC ltd and assets are under tax and company law transferable between group companies. Is that a plan to defraud a creditor it is not as clear cut as it may seem, otherwise i am sure ACL would have been able to prove it by now. (not saying it is or it isnt just that as always things are not necessarily as clear cut as people might think)
It's an interesting point.
Let's say we disregard the players - what about all of the trade that was done from CCFC Ltd.
Where did all that go - the ticket revenue, the sponsorship, the TV money etc? The golden share itself, which is the right to play in the league, that's an asset of immense value. At what point did Holdings assert beneficial ownership of that, and what value was received by Ltd in receipt of it.
The £60m of debt - where did that come from? What services or products or funds did CCFC Ltd receive in order to run up such debts?
I think, personally, there are still a lot of questions that need looking at. There does seem to be a prima facie case here in that there is little of value left in CCFC Ltd but huge liabilities. How could the directors let this happen?
I wonder about Joe Murphy. Signed for us 30th June 2011.
Otium was set up 21st November 2011. Fisher arrived then or shortly after I think.
Murphy (I think) is the only player on the books before Fisher that hasn't either been sold or signed a new contract (as far as I am aware).
If any player of value was moved, it'll be him.
But there was a small asset value regarding players left in Limited, wasn't there? I thought initially it was Bell/Sheffers on long contracts, but it could well be Murphy.
I think to get to the bottom of the player contracts you would need to see the contracts held by each player since 31/05/10 until june 2013 and to see who were the parties detailed on those contracts (just to be clear that is the contracts each individual has not the ones held by the club - 3rd party evidence is usually stronger). You would also need to see copies of all the correspondence held by the Football League in respect of each player in that period again to see who was party to the registration but also to see who originated the registration. Compare the two and we might get somewhere in clarifying it all. Something surely Appleton should have or has done? If so, surely it is not beyond wit of man to produce that evidence and put this to bed one way or another
Everyone has been keen to blame the FL for not registering the players with the company holding the golden share, rightly so because their proceedures should make sure that this happened. However it was not the FL that originated the transactions, filled in the applications, drew up the contracts etc, it was the club. The directors and secretary of CCFC would be fully involved and were fully aware that the league membership was in CCFC Ltd (remember the documented minutes from 2008). Therefore was the error the FL not checking or was the error the directors filing incorrect paperwork in the first place?
Contracts and registrations follow the share...... it is not the other way round
oh and to be clear the share was still registered with CCFC Ltd when the football league filed its annual return at Company House June 2013
I think this is where the much mentioned Management Fees kicks in. Holdings charged Limited a management fee to off set the income in Limited.
I think. But I am not an accountant.
Been thinking about the transfer value of the trade. The trade has for many years made huge losses, incurred big debts to finance that trade, with little prospect of ever repaying. So what is the value of the trade? Could it reasonably be transferred at nil value?
Bear in mind assets can be transferred between group entities in Company & Tax law. Football League rules dont permit it without written permission from the FL Board -but do they say anything that says it takes precedence over the law of the land in this particular matter? Could they? What is the FL remedy on this? or do they just employ their discretion for an easy life
You could argue it is about the CCFC brand value, well the trademark is owned by CCFC H Ltd per the trademark register
Now none of that stops there being a plan to isolate and not pay a particular creditor (that could be illegal but we dont know), none of that stops us having concerns about creditors being mislead by the accounts information, none of that stops many believing that Football League rules have been breached. None of that stops the feeling of unease and distrust many of us have about what has gone on. But the more you dig and put together the pieces the more you realise how hard and therefore how costly an action would be. The only place this can be proven one way or another is in Court, SISU and their advisors could be banking on no one having the funding to do it and the authorities that could not having the will to do so if indeed there was a case to answer.
So having engineered the movement of the player assets (assuming no contracts registered in CCFC Ltd by 21/03/13) what value is in CCFC ltd ? Was there in reality no rights to any assets by 21/03/13?
Think it is understandable why it is so difficult to make a specific case of wrong doing.
to be clear I am not making an accusation of wrong doing by any party involved.
My opinion is that this has all been planned for some time. Was it set up as plan B whilst attempting to distress the Bank loan and taken forward then as the plan when that didnt happen? Indeed you have to wonder whether it was part of the original plan that would have distressed the loan with phase 2 of that plan being breaking the lease with ACL........ but that all just conjecture
Not quite sure how that works.
If I run company A (Ltd), and I've got something of value I want to give to company B (Holdings), then company B has to pay me for it or it's surely an undervalue transfer.
I'm not an accountant either, but I ran my own business for a while and that's how I understood it. For example, when I sold my company vehicle to myself, I had to do it at market value. To do otherwise would have been, in effect, defrauding the company which is a separate legal entity.
I guess you might be able to confuse this by saying that Company B did x millions worth of work for Company A, and offset the value that way, but I'm not sure the books show that or that's it's necessarily acceptable legally.
In terms of the directors duties, it actually seems a little clearer to me. The directors allowed CCFC Ltd to run up huge debts whilst seemingly having no or few assets or trade. Fisher signed the books in June 2012 to the effect that CCFC Ltd were a going concern - by Jan 2013 all that was in the company was massive debt, substantial liabilities, and relatively few assets.
To me that means that either most of the assets and trade was moved out of CCFC Ltd between Jun 2012 and Jan 2013 (to what end, creditors might ask), or that at the point of signing the books CCFC Ltd in Jun 2012 the transfers had already happened and the accounts signed off were not a true representation of the company's status.
Either way, that could leave the directors of CCFC Ltd on the hook, in my opinion. Either they moved assets in a way that seemed designed to prejudice creditors, or they did not sign true accounts.
I hasten to add that I'm only going on my interpretation of things here - for all I know it's all absolutely and entirely above board. I'd love to see it all clarified in court though.
Hi OSB, not trying to shoot you down here, but don't asset transfers between group companies still need to be at market value, unless they are classed as distributions in which case the company transferring the asset must be profitable:
http://www.lewissilkin.com/en/Journ...oup-at-book-or-market-value.aspx#.UjBuVj_5aeI
Happy to be corrected here if I've misunderstood.
And the kind of things I'm talking about here is the stuff like ticket sales, sponsorship revenue, TV money etc. And indeed the golden share. Didn't this all reside with CCFC Ltd?
And even if those assets/income streams were transferred legitimately, wouldn't that would mean that Ltd was trading insolvently. If the transfers occurred before the books were signed off in Jun 2012, then what TF signed wasn't a true record, was it? If they occurred after that point then I suspect the courts might see that as suspect in terms of its effect on creditors.
I take your point about the costs of taking this on in court, but I can't understand why ACL wouldn't sign the CVA unless they intended to do that or had a clear idea that someone else would.
But my point is if the assets (contract) expired then registering a new contract elsewhere is open to argument as to whether any value has been transferred at all because when it expired CCFC ltd ceased to be entitled to it. That might contravene League regulations but it doesnt break the law
If the trade runs at a loss and has done since 1995 is there any value or worth to it...... would book value and market value be the same? ..... £nil
Had agreements for sponsorship ceased when the sale to Otium was completed? ...... did CCFC Ltd have rights to it because in the accounts sponsorship is shown in CCFC H Ltd books
THe golden share is a peculiar thing..... the company holds it but it doesnt own it in the normal sense...... the FL can take it back at any time ..... then reallocate at their discretion.
Did any of these changes take place before 19/06/12...... did they need to?...... were SISU and their advisors aware then of what we are discussing now?
The point I am making is that it is not as straight forward as it might seem.
My guess is that ACL would like a government organisation to investigate rather than spend the money ACL has hence they will welcome Ainsworths involvement
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