Former Rangers owner Craig Whyte has been linked to a global network of tax-avoidance firms in a new report published by the TaxWatch UK policy think tank, following an investigation by the Daily Record.
The probe, labelled the New Offshore and the Liberty Mundo Network, highlights Whyte's close connections to companies that seek to help clients hide cash and assets - and avoid extradition back to the UK to face justice. The report shines a light on offshore tax avoidance havens and the huge network of firms that have sprung up to help clients hide cash and assets.
Network of websites and companies
Forensic examination by TaxWatch UK found links to new ventures they associate with Whyte and other tax-avoidance schemes he designed - some of them highlighted by the Daily Record. Their report examined a “cluster of websites”, all with undeclared links to Whyte - whose directorship ban arose over his conduct at Rangers in 2012 as he dragged the club into liquidation after taking over from David Murray in 2011.
Investigators found a network of interconnected websites and companies that feature directors whose names appear along with different dates of birth at the same addresses - effectively distorting the trail they leave behind. Their report presents claims that AI has been used to create photos of supposed tax experts who feature on the sites.
Advice on passports, hiding cash and staying out of jail
Jack McConnel, who carried out the TaxWatch investigation and authored the report, told the Daily Record that source code and domain analysis points clearly to close links between Craig Whyte and companies like Liberty Mundo, Offshore Fortress and Extradition.co. The sites offer advice for UK business directors to get additional passports, to hide cash and assets from their wives and for people to stay out of jail if they get caught breaking laws in foreign countries.
McConnel said: “We’re used to thinking of offshore tax avoidance as an elite, exclusive world of Swiss bank accounts and Caribbean law firms.
“But increasingly it involves privacy-enhanced cryptocurrency methods, offshore entities set up online in minutes, and multiple passports – marketed by ‘financial influencers’.
“The tools promoted by Liberty Mundo are aimed at a wide audience that might be unaware of what they’re getting into and for whom the advice may not be appropriate. That’s bad for consumers, but also the Exchequer at a time when public finances are stretched.
“Unlike many countries, UK regulation and enforcement just hasn’t caught up with this new reality. An effectively anonymous network should ring alarm bells. How can we trust tax advice if we can’t even know and trust who’s behind it?
“We should be protecting taxpayers and the public purse.”
AI-generated ‘invisible advisers’
TaxWatch’s report claims the Whyte-linked websites use “invisible advisers” - supposed authors of articles who can’t be traced in the real world. The report states: “TaxWatch has been unable to find independent, verifiable public profiles or professional histories of any of these individuals. AI image detection software suggests that their profile images are AI generated.”
The probe, which has analysed meta-data and discovered glaring “crossover content” on sites, states: “Evidence from website infrastructure, source code and associated domains indicates several links between these websites and Craig Whyte, a well-known UK businessman who is the former owner of Rangers FC. Whyte is not mentioned on the websites or associated documentation.”
The TaxWatch report notes websites and associated social media channels marketing “a familiar set of themes”, based on assets and cash being vulnerable to tax and other clawbacks.
Whyte’s history and previous investigations
In his autobiography, Whyte has mocked the UK’s Insolvency Service and said it’s easy to get around directorship bans. But anyone caught flouting such a ban could face a jail sentence.
The report adds: “Liberty Mundo is just one of a growing number of online/offshore advice retailers and ‘financial influencers’ (fin-fluencers) promoting tax and asset protection advice, relocation, citizenship by investment and financial secrecy tools to consumers.”
“Regulation remains compartmentalised...but online offshore-advice platforms may sit in the gaps.... Online advice also offers the opportunity for anonymity.”
The report acknowledges the Daily Record’s investigation in 2020. We showed how Whyte formed an alliance with his dodgy dad Tom to provide a masterclass in debt dodging to company directors. For a hefty fee, the Whytes had tips that included lessons in cheating employees out of redundancy payments. The enterprise also involved Craig - who is serving a maximum 15 year ban from being a company director - passing himself off as his dad when he spoke to our undercover reporter.
After our probe Tom Whyte father was subsequently also disqualified as a director for ten years in 2023 and his company Fortress Restructuring Ltd being compulsorily wound up by the Insolvency Service. Investigators nailed him for claiming a £50,000 Covid Bounce Back Loan despite the company not trading.
Earlier this month it was revealed that Craig Whyte is touting himself as a “Deep Value” investing guru - advising sharks on how to acquire distressed businesses, protect personal assets from litigation and use offshore accounts to avoid tax. Whyte was cleared of fraudulently taking over Rangers in 2017. Craig Whyte has been asked to comment.
