O is for Ogilvie
Mr Conflicted himself. He was President of the SFA when the governing body “discovered” that Rangers had concealed documents for years. But he was also at Ibrox when this process began; in fact it is his signature on the bottom of the piece of paper that set EBT’s up in the first place.
Ogilvie was more than aware of what was going on.
This guy should never have risen as far as he did; his success in the SFA is a testament to how rancid the association was. Regulations expressly forbid anyone being on the board of one club and holding shares in another; whilst he was a director at Hearts he had a holding in Rangers.
He later passed then to his wife, which was also against regulations.
The EBT scheme for which he was responsible – the Discounted Options Scheme – was the first brick to fall out of the wall at Ibrox. HMRC identified that scam early in the day and they sent a tax bill to the club demanding payment. They had discovered the “side contracts” although the club had denied they existed. Rangers own lawyer recommended that the bill be paid; they had been caught red-handed and everyone involved knew it.
Is inconceivable, then, that Ogilvie could have been in ignorance about those self-same “side letters” which the club had concealed not only from the tax man but from the SFA. He was Vice President of the association at the time, and knew the club was in breach of their rules.
By the time he moved up the whole world knew about EBT’s.
The Discounted Options Scheme haunts them to this day. It is the subject of the Resolution 12 case, and Ogilvie didn’t just know of its existence but brought it into the world. He is no longer at the SFA, but he still has his company pension and the scandal of his tenure stills stinks out the corridors of Hampden.
He has never been asked the hard questions those events demand of him; he would probably not be honest with us if he was.