Rangers in administration: Craig Whyte has stirred a hornet's nest at Ibrox - and he is set to be stung One legacy of Murray's reign was the use of Employee Benefit Trusts to pay players, which has become the subject of an action brought by HMRC (known as "the big tax case"), which alleges Rangers owe £24 million unpaid tax, £12 million interest and penalties which could amount to £10-15 million. Another issue - a liability of £2.8 million ("the small tax case") also stems from Murray's tenure, although that was allowed for in the deal between the pair. It still remains a mystery quite why Murray entrusted the club to which he had devoted so much of his life to a man of Whyte's questionable credentials. It is presumed that Murray, who had been trying to sell for three years, was happy with Whyte despite several of the directors who comprised an independent takeover scrutiny committee expressing reservations. Whyte got rid of them within weeks of assuming control. Whyte seems to have risen almost without a trace. One version of his career has him making £20,000 from share dealing while still at school. His first business, Whyte Hire, was declared bankrupt with debts of £300,000 in the early 1990s. According to his own account he has supervised several successful business turnarounds. Yet, when I asked him in September to identify a single company that he had transformed into a profitable enterprise, he replied: "I've done a lot of substantial turnarounds that are below the radar. I understand that everyone wants to know every detail of my life, everything that is going on but Rangers is my public life - everything else should be private. This conflation of his previous business record with privacy, bizarre though it appeared at the time, seems to have been grounded in the fear that an unappetising detail might be confirmed. On the evening of his takeover of Rangers, Telegraph Sport reported that he had at one stage been banned from acting as a company director for seven years. In November a BBC Scotland documentary also disclosed the ban on Whyte being a director, among other allegations. He promptly banned all co-operation between Rangers and the broadcaster and declared that BBC Scotland would be sued for defamation. The writ finally arrived on Friday afternoon but on Nov 30 a statement by Rangers admitted that he had indeed been banned as alleged. In January Rangers were delisted from the Stock Exchange because they had not submitted audited accounts on time, although Whyte responded that there were few benefits from a listing. Rangers" annual general meeting was also delayed prompting expressions of concern amongst the supporters, whose anxieties had been fuelled by reports of court orders for arrestment of cash owed or disputed by various individuals and firms and by the visits to Ibrox of sheriff's officers in pursuit of debts enforced by the courts. Whyte's career pedigree was not the only subject he took pains to conceal. Prior to his arrival, Rangers had made annual deals with the Ticketus agency, which bought the rights to money for season ticket sales, allowing the club to smooth cash flow in the period between spring and summer, when football clubs have least liquidity. In August it was said that Whyte had bargained the season tickets for a much longer period. When I asked him, on Sept 12, if he had mortgaged the season tickets he replied: "No." In fact, he had sold four years" worth of season tickets for £24.4 million. On Thursday the administrators - Paul Clark and David Whitehouse of Duff and Phelps - said the money had not been paid to Rangers but to a parent company. However, the liability that prompted Rangers" administration was a sum of around £9 million in PAYE and VAT deducted at source but not passed on to HMRC. At this stage it is worth considering the probable income acquired - by regular means or otherwise - by Whyte during his brief time in charge. In addition to the Ticketus money and the retained cash due to HMRC, there is the funding from transfer receipts - Nikica Jelavic, Rangers" top scorer, moved to Everton last month - catering income, revenue from kit sales, and sundries like programme sales at home games and subscriptions to the club's online TV service. The first three items alone amount to something in the region of £36 million and one club source indicated to Telegraph Sport that the likely total would be around £40 million. True, Whyte paid off the bank debt of £18 million owed to Lloyds TSB at the end of Murray's 23 years as owner, but the liability was only transferred to another company owned by Whyte himself. The farrago of denials and obfuscations that has characterised Whyte's reign might point the casual observer towards certain conclusions about his competence or his probity. However, some of the former Rangers directors who were displaced by Whyte think it is possible that he had the current situation in mind from the start and that the most likely scenario is that he anticipated having to sell the club on after the crisis. With an agreement of creditors - including HMRC, who are evidently under pressure from the Scottish Parliament not to put Rangers out of business - Whyte could yet emerge with a club shorn of most of its debt and sell it to one of the several possible buyers who have made contact with the administrators. When I suggested to him, back in September that insolvency would not necessarily be the worst outcome for him, Whyte replied: "We're looking at the balance sheet, we're looking at ways to restructure the business but I'm not going to get into what form that might take." The form it has taken so far is to have compelled Rangers to all but yield the SPL title to Celtic, after the 10-point deduction applied to the defending champions last week. It has also triggered such a sense of shock and outrage among the Rangers support that Whyte - who did not attend yesterday's home game against Kilmarnock - would undoubtedly be in danger of assault were he to stroll down a Glasgow street today. Meanwhile, at the instigation of the previous Ibrox chairman, Alastair Johnston, Strathclyde Police have only just been handed the information regarding the Rangers affair and have launched a preliminary investigation, while the Scottish Football Association are also looking at it. As one former Rangers director remarked of Whyte this week: "He might have thought he could get in and out without being stung - he actually seems to have no idea that he has stirred a hornets" nest of hornets" nests." Rangers Q&A Who is Craig Whyte? Born in Motherwell on May 23, 1971. Has a castle in the Highlands and also a home in Monaco. Whyte is said to "ultimately" own Liberty Capital, based in the British Virgin Islands. According to Whyte last May, Liberty has a £1 billion of assets under investment - but there is no public record of what they are. Why have Rangers gone in to administration? Rangers owe up to £75 million if they lose their case with HMRC. The directors entered administration to try to restructure their debts and ensure the long-term future. What are Employee Benefit Trusts? EBTs are trusts set up by an employer to provide a flexible range of benefits and payments to employees and their families. They can be used to defer income tax and national insurance charges. Worst-case scenario? Rangers lose big tax case. HMRC insist on their cash. Rangers go bust. Best-case scenario? They emerge from liquidation by agreement of the creditors. Rangers win big tax case. Roddy Forsyth and Damian Bloom (tax partner at Berwin Leighton Paisner)