Good morning,
I am in true Cyril Fletcher style indebted to HH reader and gentleman Tweeter, @RicciAshoori who has brought to my attention a fascinating twist in the whole Arry Redschnapps & HMRC fiasco.
Some of the information I can share with you is taken from a web site called http://thestory.ie/ a site with a tag line of ‘in search of transparency’. Well if this article is anything to go by they are very close to earning their Junior X-Ray Specs Badge.
The information I’m unable share with you are documents that are probably still subject to a Court Order issued by Southwark Crown Court. So what I’ll do for clarity is simply lift salient chunks of the thestory.ie article and if you want to go a hunting for more it’s far from difficult to find.
“The investigation is part of ‘Operation Apprentice’ a long standing investigation into alleged football corruption.
In 2007, then Portsmouth chief executive Peter Storrie was arrested — along with then manager Harry Redknapp, then club owner Milan Mandaric (now owner of Sheffield Wednesday), agent Willie McKay and former Portsmouth player Amdy Faye — over allegations of corruption. The five men were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and false accounting.
Last year Redknapp, who is the current manager at Tottenham, was charged with “two counts of cheating the public revenue of an estimated £40,000 after voluntarily attending London’s Bishopsgate police station”.
According to The Independent:
Charges concerned two payments, totalling 295,000 US dollars, alleged to have been made from Mandaric to Redknapp via a bank account in Monaco, evading the tax and National Insurance contributions due between April 1, 2002 and November 28, 2007.
Mandaric, now chairman of Leicester, was charged with tax evasion relating to the payment of 295,000 US dollars to another person via a Monaco bank account, evading tax and National Insurance.
Storrie was charged with concealing a signing-on fee for ex-Portsmouth player Amdy Faye by paying it into the midfielder’s bank account.
The allegation related to the transfer of Faye from Auxerre to Fratton Park for £1.5million in August 2003.
For his part, Redknapp sought to have the case against him dismissed in November last year.
But according to these court documents, the Crown Prosecution Service sought the assistance of the US Department of Justice in September 2010 relating to the transfer of $295,000 from the Florida bank account of a company called First Star International to an account held by Redknapp in Monaco.
Also included in a list given by the CPS was one payment by “Rosie 47? of $207,433.73 on February 12, 2008 to Redknapp. This payment was two months after he was arrested in November 2007. The source of another lodgment in June 2002, for $145,000, is unclear.
The CPS requested US authorities to assist them in obtaining information from the bank used by First Star International – the City National Bank of Florida.“
The content of those documents I am unprepared to share on this blog, but as I say, they are out there.
We’ll have a caption comp later :daumen:
I’ve read the documents as well which is an excellent piece of investigage journalism. Probably allowed to publish it because its an Irish Website and would not be in breach of any court order.
But to a layman like myself its pretty damning! I cannot see how the court can come to any verdict other than guitly?
There has always been allegations of impropriety surrounding Redknapp throughout his manageria career and this seems to validate those suspicions.
Surely if he is found guilty Levy should do all us long suffering fans a favour and sack him!
Long suffering?
What can you mean by long suffering!!
We surely don`t need fans like you!
Hear hear, 60spur! In the last two seasons, two top five finishes and a champions league spot for the first time ever. How many football club supporters in this country would give their right arms for that kind of ‘long suffering’?
Indeed, the author is blogging in Cork. And on a day like to day I wish I was too.
I think the problem is proving that the monies were transferred with the sole purpose of avoiding paying tax & NI.
I’ve heard that he is bang to rights and that it is proving it was done on purpose that’s the hard part!
Is this why levy ain’t spending cos of what might happen
Tax avoidance can be legal but tax evasion is a problem.
I’m not a long suffering fan, I’m not suffering at all, I was happy Harry was able to get us into the Champions League but I’m realistic enough to know that we don’t have a divine right to it and it is not easy to achieve with the money other teams have.
I would be amazed if most clubs aren’t on the fiddle with payments or bungs.
I’ve also read the documents and, as far as I can see, on their own they are far from damning by any stretch of the imagination. However, they may well form a part of a much larger case against the defendants which may well amount to proof of wrongdoing. We’ll all have to wait and see, if and when the case is ever tried.
So these papers just show that the CPS wants proof from the US bank that Mandaric made the payment into Redknapp’s Monaco account.
Mandaric doesn’t deny that he made the payment to Redknapp.
The crux of it is if Redknapp can show that this payment was a loan for investment purposes, he’s not guilty of tax fraud.
The papers don’t confirm anything at all.
You seem rather keen to convict the man on no evidence whatsoever.
I hope you’re never a juror, since we have a legal presumption of innocense until PROVEN guilty.
Innocense? Isn’t that what the three wise men brought baby jebus?
i am indebted to you, it should of course be a c and not an s, but then you’re an expert at putting the c in everything aren’t you? ;-)
Surely you mean a T rather than an S and an E? You silly C :shifty:
No,
If you’re gonna be a pedant get it right :-p . It should have been ” a presumption of innocence”
in·no·cence
[in-uh-suhns] noun
1.the quality or state of being innocent; freedom from sin or moral wrong.
2.freedom from legal or specific wrong; guiltlessness: The prisoner proved his innocence.
3.simplicity; absence of guile or cunning; naiveté.
4.lack of knowledge or understanding.
5.harmlessness; innocuousness
A presumption of innocent would be incorrect grammar.
:sleeping:
cunt…
:daumen:
shouldn’t that be “cunce”? :-p
No, there are three of you, it should be cunts. :sleeping:
I think you’ll find that we are all innocent until proven c*nts… :pirat:
Let’s get Ancelotti
No tnx.
kenny palmer- long suffering?!?!
you must’ve really suffered watching spurs in the champions league last season- perhaps if we had a different boss we’d have won it yeah?
it’s no wonder spurs fans get a bad name
I’d bet my house that Mrs Palmer has five daughters. ;-)
I think the problem is you lot!!!!!!!
Is Harry really that disliked by his own fans that they want him in jail?
A custodial sentence is unlikely considering the sums involved – being a fraction of his annual income.
On the sums mentioned it might be a case of Harry replicating Sting’s performance in Quadrophenia after the Mods n Rockers fracas where he simply lobs out his cheque book in the dock :)
I don’t think Spurs fans dislike Harry, after all he has done for the club. I certanly don’t. But some will take offence at being called idiots and to go and support someone else, just for having an opinion.
The old saying with this court case is there is no smoke without fire. The sums being paid are astronomicial though, aren’t they and it does make me think that something is not right.
Still, innocent until proven guilty and all that.
It’s never dull being a Spurs fan!!
Let’s be honest, anyone who goes to support another team just because they are called an idiot, is not a true supporter
Come on you Arsenal
I don’t dislike Harry, and I don’t want him to go. But at best we have him for a year before getting into the England job or worst he’s going down. Either way we are going to lose our manager which surely isn’t having a stabilising effect on the players and the club on a whole.
Here here and these people call themselves supporters.
FYI http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hear_hear
Are you aware that you can support a football team without being a “happy clapper”
Just what we need HH;
Another blog to give our Arry haters a platform to linch him
I,m gonna ignore this one if you dont mind and concentrate on the positive blogs
I will take a look sometime tomorrow and count up how many have hung him out to dry though
:angry:
fact is TS is he’s as bent as a nine bob note, no lynching required if he gets convicted it will be down to his own greed.
If the police had a serious look at all the managers and players they would have a field day and most normal people would end up banged up if we carried on like them.
Personally I’d like to thank ‘arry for what he’s done for us and move on with someone with an inkling of a plan or strategy to take the club forward.
We’re under two weeks away from start of season and we’ve improved our squad by signing Friedel – so fucking depressing you couldn’t make it up.
I’ve also heard from a little dickie bird that a certain manager facing a bit of litigation is still at it by the way. Personal appearances = cash or casino chips as payment no questions asked???? Fucking idiot – he’s hardly off the grid