Flashback: Ex-Derby CEO + 2 Ex-Dirs Guilty...ABC

What loan company did they use?

Flashback....

Derby Evening Telegraph

Ex-Derby County trio face new charge of false accounting
Tuesday, April 28, 2009,

THREE former Derby County chiefs accused of defrauding the club and concealing criminal property now also face charges of false accounting.
Ex-chief executive Jeremy Keith, former director of football Murdo Mackay, and ex-finance director Andrew Mackenzie are accused of stealing £125,000 plus VAT each from the club after securing a £15m loan.

And yesterday, the three all pleaded not guilty to a new charge of false accounting.

It relates to an allegedly false invoice showing an agreement between the club and a firm called Streamline Management. The company received payments for Keith and Mackay from Derby County and then transferred it to their companies.

The prosecution allege that the invoice "falsely represented" that Streamline Management was due fees from Derby County for the introduction of the club to ABC Corporation, which provided the £15m loan.

They also allege the fees had not been the subject of an agreement and that the date on the invoice was not correct.
Streamline Management owner Mark Waters is also in the dock facing the same false accounting charge.

Yesterday, the trial at Northampton Crown Court got under way again, with Keith giving evidence. The ex-chief executive revealed he had already completed two major football finance deals before his ABC success.

One involved securing a £20m loan for Leeds United, while the other saw him raise £2m for a new stand at Portsmouth's ground.
The court heard that Keith's rise to being a football financier began after he became a band promoter in South Africa.

He said: "I was approached by a gentleman – a Jerry Maguire-type character – from New York who was organising a football tournament. My brief was to find a Premier League club for that tournament; that club was Leeds United."

Keith, 44, of Abingdon, Oxfordshire; Mackenzie, 54, of Burton Road, Derby; and Mackay, 53, of Alicante, are charged with conspiracy to defraud and concealing criminal property.
Accountant Mark Waters, 48, of Bromley, Kent, is charged with concealing criminal property and false accounting.
Solicitor David Lowe, 58, of Monaco, is also facing a money laundering charge.
All deny the charges.
The trial continues.
www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/news/Ex-Derby-County-trio-face-new-charge-false-accounting/article-942440-detail/article.html


BBC

last updated at 21:40 GMT, Friday, 3 April 2009

£3 Rams shares 'insured for £3m'
Three former Derby County directors bought the club for just £3 then insured their shares for £3m, a fraud trial has heard.

A life insurance policy bearing their names was found among personal papers, Northampton Crown Court was told.

Ex-chief executive Jeremy Keith, 44, of Oxfordshire, ex-director Murdo Mackay, 53, of Fife and ex-finance chief Andrew Mackenzie, 54, all deny any wrongdoing.

They are accused of conspiracy to defraud and conceal criminal property.

'Secret commission'

The case relates to alleged financial irregularities during a 2003 takeover of the club.

On Friday, the court heard that police officers searched a storage unit in Bournemouth hired by Mr Mackay to store items while he moved from his native Scotland to Spain.

Among items recovered were computer discs and documents, including a life insurance policy bearing the three men's names and valuing their shares in the club at £3m, the jury heard.

At the centre of the case is the allegation that the men also paid themselves £440,625 as a secret commission from club funds for making the deal happen in the first place.

Mr Keith, Mr Mackay and Mr Mackenzie and two other men deny the charges against them.

The prosecution is due to conclude its case next week.
newsvote.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/derbyshire/7982712.stm


Club directors 'took secret fees'

The club's shares were bought for £3
A court has heard how three men used a loan to buy Derby County Football Club then defrauded the club by paying themselves a "secret commission".

Ex-chief executive Jeremy Keith, 41, of Oxfordshire, ex-director Murdo Mackay, 53, of Fife and former finance director Andrew Mackenzie, 55, deny the charges.

All are charged with conspiracy to defraud and conceal criminal property.

The case, at Northampton Crown Court, relates to alleged financial irregularities during a 2003 takeover.

Mark Waters, 48, a businessman from Kent who worked for the board as an accountant in 2003, is also charged with false accounting and conspiracy to conceal criminal property.

A fifth man, David Lowe, 58, of Boulevard des Moulins, Monaco, who worked as a legal advisor during the takeover, is charged with helping to acquire or conceal funds.

Financial struggles

The jury heard Derby County was struggling financially in 2003 following its relegation from the Premier League the previous year.

Prosecutor Richard Sutton QC said the club owed more than £35m and was put into receivership by the Co-operative Bank.

"It was in these circumstances in 2003 that Mr Keith, Mr Mackenzie and Mr Mackay made their move to take over the club," said Mr Sutton.

"The prosecution say they did it in such a way that it would not involve them in any personal financial outlay and they even gave themselves a little bonus in the process."

'Share deal'

The court heard on the same day as the club was put into administration, a company called Sharmine bought the club's shares for £3.

The Panama-based ABC corporation then offered the club a £15m loan to be used over the next 10 years.

"The prosecution case is that Sharmine was the vehicle of Mr Keith, Mr Mackenzie and Mr Mackay," Mr Sutton told the court.

"They, having discovered a potential source of borrowing, were able to hold out the carrot of a £15m loan to the administrators who decided to sell the club for next to nothing."

The jury was told the men charged Derby County "secret commission" of £440,625 for brokering the loan but kept the charges hidden.

The court heard the payments were uncovered in 2006 after a signed affidavit was handed to chairman John Sleightholme by a stranger at the club.

The continuing case has no connection with the club's current board and continues.
newsvote.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/derbyshire/7933016.stm

Is it only the people on trial who are the only ones who actually did something wrong/and in trouble? ie was it pretty much irrelevant who the loaners were; and that the whole case was what they did?


Oxford Mail - Jusy considers football fraud verdict
26th June 2009

A JURY is still considering its verdict in the case of an Abingdon man accused of fraud during the takeover of Derby County, after convicting two of his co-defendants.

The jury at Northampton Crown Court has been told three men used a loan to buy the struggling Championship football club, then defrauded the club by paying themselves “secret commission”.

Derby County Football Club ex-chief executive Jeremy Keith, ex-finance director Andrew Mackenzie and ex-director of football Murdo Mackay, used the £15m loan from a Panama corporation as a “carrot” to buy the club for just £3 in 2003, the court heard.

Keith, 41, of Abingdon, Mackenzie, 55, of Derby, and Mackay, 53, of Fife, Scotland, all denied conspiring to defraud Derby County of £440,625 on or before December 8, 2003.

Yesterday Mackenzie and Mackay were both found guilty of claiming the secret commission totalling £440,625, after brokering a loan for the club, nicknamed the Rams. The jury was out for more than six days.

In Keith’s case the jury is considering an alternative charge of falsifying documents.

David Lowe, 58, of Monaco, legal adviser during the takeover, was found guilty of helping to launder £81,895 of the £440,625.

Mark Waters, 48, of south east London, who was an accountant for the board in 2003, was found not guilty of falsifying documents.

The jury will resume its deliberations today.

www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/4460190.Jusy_considers_football_fraud_verdict/

Derby Evening Telergaph
From Florida to Monaco – the trail that led to former Rams bosses' convictions
Saturday, June 27, 2009,

FRAUD claims against three ex-Rams bosses led police into an investigation which spanned four countries and two continents.
Officers looked deep into the financial lives of Andrew Mackenzie, Murdo Mackay and Jeremy Keith over an 18-month period

The inquiry stretched from Florida to the Isle of Man, Malta to Monaco.

The investigating team took more than 150 witness statements and trawled through thousands of documents from some 70 sources, ranging from banks to solicitors.

In total the investigation and subsequent trial of the three and two alleged accomplices cost the taxpayer £1.5m.

Now, the work of Detective Sergeant Ian Penman, Detective Constable Terry Olney, and Detective Constable Nick Collin has proved worthwhile after Mackay and Mackenzie were convicted of conspiracy to defraud the club, and Keith was convicted of false accounting.

An accomplice to Mackay and Mackenzie, David Lowe, was found guilty of money laundering while a fifth man, Mark Waters, was found not guilty of false accounting.

The police investigation found that the club's ex-finance director Mackenzie, and ex-director of football Mackay had illegally taken £125,000 plus VAT each from the club.

Keith was not involved in the conspiracy but told the court that he had taken a payment.

His crime was to cover up the payment through an invoice which made it look as if the money was being paid to a company to which he was not connected.

The three received their payments for securing a £15m loan which saved the club from receivership in October 2003.

Prior to this time, the chairman of Derby County was Lionel Pickering, a man struggling against a rising tide of debt at the club.

The jury heard that Mackay was asked by Mr Pickering to find cash to help the club.

Mackay then involved Keith, who secured the £15m from Panamanian company ABC Corporation. Mackenzie was involved in securing the loan through his role as finance director.

The loan enabled a new consortium, which included Keith, to take over the club.

Keith became chief executive, Mackenzie continued in his role as financial director and Mackay became director of football.

The police investigation was sparked in February 2006 by complaints from Derby businessman Peter Gadsby, two months before a consortium - of which he was a part - took over the club.

It was also the month when the first plank of important evidence came to light - an affidavit, or sworn statement, signed by Mackay.
The document had been passed to the then club chairman John Sleightholme and said that Mackay, Mackenzie and Keith had received money from the Rams in return for securing the £15m loan.

Mr Sleightholme referred the matter to Derbyshire police and DS Ian Penman was passed the document.

DS Penman said: "The police conducted an exercise during the first few months of the inquiry in order to establish if there was any evidence of criminality.

"This included interviewing the suspects in this case either under caution or as potential witnesses. None of them were arrested at this stage."

The second part of the investigation saw documents gathered which showed Mackenzie had used most of his stolen money to buy a villa in Florida and a holiday in Malaysia. Financial information was also seized from Lowe's Monaco offices with the help of local police.

In the Isle of Man, bank accounts including those linked to Sharmine – the name of the company which bought the Rams in October 2003 – were looked into.

An address in Malta linked to Lowe was also investigated.
DS Penman said this was when the case became difficult as the gathering of evidence involved liaising with foreign police forces.

In each case, a letter requesting help was sent to the Crown Prosecution Service who then involved the Home Office.
The Home Office would then speak to its equivalent in the foreign country.

That body would then contact local magistrates who would tell police about the request.

Police would then select a single point of contact for DS Penman to liaise with, through Interpol if necessary.

DS Penman did not travel to Florida but did go to Malta and Monaco to assist local police.

He said: "When evidence is in this country we have the powers to get it. But once you start dealing with other countries there are time delays, you start having to deal with different legal systems and different organisations."

The arrests of Mackay, Mackenzie, Keith, and Waters, followed invitations to a police station.

But Lowe was taken into custody at Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Club while he was acting in his capacity as a steward.

This happened because Lowe's home address was in Monaco and, there fore, under different legal jurisdiction.

DS Penman said: "We took in excess of 150 witness statements and trawled through thousands of documents from some 70 sources to piece together the intricate jigsaw puzzle which, when completed, pointed to a criminal conspiracy and cover up.

"Lies had been told by Keith and MacKenzie to various interested parties including a bank, administrators and the media."
He said the investigation into Mackenzie had been particularly complex as he had made an extra effort to cover his tracks after

realising an investigation could take place.
The former financial director had created a buffer between himself and the £90,000 he received, by having it passed through two companies.

Some £81,895 of that money was passed to him through Lowe and the rest through Mackay in the form of the Malaysia holiday.

DS Penman said: "He (Mackenzie) created an extra hurdle to any future investigation by having the money transferred by Lowe into an American account which was being used to receive monies towards his Florida villa purchase.

"But he clearly felt that he needed some added comfort and apparently paid Lowe £3,000 to produce a promissory note which purported that Lowe had loaned him £81,895 in April 2005.

"The promissory note was worded so that it appeared that repayments on the loan were deferred and not due to commence until 13 days after the police interview in 2006.

"He even started to make repayments as per the note. However e-mails between him and David Lowe and other circumstantial evidence clearly demonstrated that this was a sham."

DS Penman said the case had been unusual because one of the accused had provided the first piece of evidence.

Mackay provided an affidavit which he said was to help businessman Peter Gadsby takeover the club in 2006.
DS Penman said: "What was unusual in this case was that one of the convicted men actually provided the first real piece of evidence, although there were some inaccuracies in the affidavit.

"I've no doubt that when he was providing that information, Murdo Mackay would not have considered it would fall into the hands of the police and lead to his conviction."

Derbyshire police said information about the number of hours officers had spent on the case was not available.
The trial lasted more than three months, with the jury's deliberations lasting for 30 hours.

The court process started in 2008 when it was decided to move the case to Northampton because of difficulties in finding an unbiased jury in Derby.

Four of the five accused – who all denied the charges – gave evidence with the exception of Lowe, who chose not to take the witness stand.

Also giving evidence were former John Sleightholme, Rams solicitor Nigel Blackwell, banker Keith Anderson, and club finance manager Heather Gorham.

www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/news/Florida-Monaco-8211-trail-led-Rams-bosses-convictions/article-1117149-detail/article.html

Mirror

DERBY-STYLE FRAUD IS 'RIFE' By James Nursey 29/06/2009

Former Derby chairman Peter Gadsby fears corruption is rife in football after exposing a £500,000 fraud at County.

Ex-Derby chief executive Jeremy Keith was last week convicted of false accounting over a £125,000 payment he received from the club. Two other former Rams officials were also found guilty of false accounting.

Gadsby said: "I was alarmed to discover that it fell in line with the sort of allegations under investigation elsewhere in the game."

www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/2009/06/29/derby-style-fraud-is-rife-115875-21479916/