The Crown Office has declined a request from former SNP donors for a formal review into why Nicola Sturgeon was not prosecuted during the Operation Branchform investigation into the party's finances.
Three former party members who donated to IndyRef2 fundraisers in 2017 and 2019 signed a letter to Scotland's prosecution service last week demanding an internal probe.
Donors' demand and the response
The crowdfunders raised £660,000, meant to be "ring-fenced" for a future referendum, but John Swinney this year admitted it has been spent on general SNP activities. A police probe into the missing cash – first revealed by the Sunday Mail in 2021 – instead led to separate charges against Sturgeon's husband and then-party CEO Peter Murrell for embezzling more than £400,000 from the SNP over 12 years.
Sturgeon, who was SNP leader from 2014 to 2023, was not charged. Legislation in 2014 introduced a new "victim's right to review" of decisions in criminal cases. But responding to the request on Friday, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) said the criteria for the right-to-review scheme hadn't been met because police never asked it to prosecute the former FM.
Background of the investigation
Sturgeon was arrested and questioned as part of the five-year police probe in June 2023, but cops later confirmed she wouldn't face charges, with the ex-FM saying she had been "exonerated". It was previously revealed Police Scotland sought guidance from prosecutors in 2024 on whether or not to charge Sturgeon, which, if they had done, would have led to an official prosecution report to COPFS.
In a briefing following Murrell's sentencing to five years in prison in June, COPFS said: "This was not a report seeking the consideration of prosecution. Police did not charge and sought the Crown's view on the evidence... Having considered all of the material, Crown Counsel instructed that Peter Murrell should be prosecuted for embezzlement. Crown Counsel also agreed that Nicola Sturgeon and (ex-SNP treasurer) Colin Beattie should not be charged."
Donors' accusations and further actions
Writing to COPFS last week, the donors asked for a "formal review" and accused Sturgeon of "clear obstruction of justice" by blocking scrutiny of SNP accounts during Murrell's crime spree. The Sunday Mail revealed in 2023 how Sturgeon shut down concerns about SNP finances. Footage from 2021 uncovered by the Sunday Mail showed Sturgeon angrily warning members of the party's ruling body to be "very careful" about suggesting there were "any problems" with SNP finances.
She has repeatedly denied any knowledge of Murrell's criminality. Sturgeon announced plans for a second referendum in March 2017, saying "every penny" from the crowdfunders would go towards a campaign. One of the letter's signatories, Louise Williams, an ex-Nationalist who later joined the late Alex Salmond's Alba party, said: "People have been defrauded of money. Everybody knows what ring-fenced means - it means it's going to be spent on one purpose. That purpose was a referendum. They've admitted they've stolen it."
In another legal action, Wings Over Scotland blogger Stuart Campbell has threatened cops with a judicial review for failing to reopen its probe into the ring-fenced money. He got a legal opinion from Roddy Dunlop KC suggesting there was still crime to be probed. It comes as Police Scotland last week dropped a separate probe into the finances of Yes Scotland.
