For Me, But Not For Thee
Huh.
Well, that’s nice, isn’t it?
The SNP are hoping to make out like bandits from Peter Murrell’s conviction.
Despite Swinney’s admission yesterday that the party stole £700,000 from donors to two “ring-fenced” fundraisers, it stands to pocket a surprise bonus of £400,000 from recovering his criminal proceeds (on top of Swinney’s boasted “significant increase” in donations from gullible idiot members since Murrell’s conviction).
It is not currently known whether that will include the retrieval from Nicola Sturgeon of the gifts Murrell bought her with embezzled money – a suggestion Sturgeon was mortified by in her Laura Kuenssberg interview on Sunday.
But keeping goods you know were bought with stolen money is a crime in Scotland, whether or not you knew at the time you received them.
It seems clear from the above clip that Sturgeon has not “immediately take[n] steps to hand the property over to the police”, and has no apparent intention of doing so.
Murrell’s lawyer told the court this week that his client “had enough funds to repay the sum he embezzled from the party”.
That’s an extremely interesting revelation in itself, in several ways. For one, we don’t know whether it means only the £400,000 he was convicted for, or also the extra £60,000 that the Crown dropped from the charge sheet in his plea deal.
The former case would create an extraordinary situation where the SNP was being paid back for stuff Murrell stole for himself, but not for stuff he stole for Sturgeon.
The second startling thing is that since no recovery process has yet begun and nothing has been sold, the lawyer’s statement means that Murrell must CURRENTLY have at least £400,000 in liquid funds, despite having a take-home pay of only around £57,000 during his time as CEO and having lent £107,000 to the SNP. That’s quite a feat of squirrelling. (And also means he’ll still be quite wealthy when he comes out of prison.)
So the SNP plans to keep everything that rightfully belongs to it and its members, but also to keep everything that doesn’t, including donations that were solicited and obtained from members of other parties EXPRESSLY because they were NOT to be used for everyday SNP operations.
And seemingly means to let Nicola Sturgeon enjoy the fruits of Murrell’s theft to boot.
We can therefore forgive anyone who treats John Swinney’s assertions in his email to members today – that the party is a new, reformed moral entity that conducts itself with the greatest moral probity and is now above all suspicion – with extreme scepticism.
Under “Honest John” Swinney the SNP appears to be the same unprincipled, grasping, crooked, cynical and greedy bunch of shysters and snakes that it’s been since 2015, and the slow-learning cretins still throwing their money at it thoroughly deserve to – and doubtless will – be robbed again.
As John Swinney omits to mention it:
The person who is the SNP business convener and is thus the line manager for the CEO, Callum McCaig, is currently Angela Constance.
She took over the role from Kirsten Oswald in November 2023.
If the SNP recover the £400,000 that was stolen from them, I imagine they’ll immediately ring-fence it and put it towards the £600,000 that they stole.
Surely they will??
Apologies in advance for what may be stupid questions.
If Murrell has liquid funds of approx £400k why did the taxpayer have to foot his legal costs?
Since it appears he was flush, but pleaded poverty, is this not a form of fraud in itself?
I believe it was because his assets had been frozen, leaving him no access to any funds.
I believe that the key word in your post is “liquid”, Nae Need!
Mr Murrell’s funds and assets will, I imagine, have been frozen and he will not have had access to them.
Since the legal system would seem to me to be run for the benefit of its professional servants the Advocate who represented Mr Murrell will be paid from (as usual) the long suffering and inexhaustible public purse.
His assets are frozen and they are excluded from consideration in calculating whether he was eligible for Legal Aid.
Thanks Ian and Sven.
If they’ve now been unfrozen, can he use them for anything he wants? Like paying back some of his tax payer funded legal costs?
The Legal Aid costs are a separate issue from any funds to which Mr Murrell may regain access I believe, Nae N.
That account is settled and dealt with.
There may well now be questions of recovery of proceeds of crime proceedings, separate issues of civil action by the SNP for the moneys embezzled from them and perhaps settlement disputes regarding shared assetts and liability should the Murrells divorce.
Let’s face it, as always only lawyers will be the ultimate beneficiaries.
Sven, I’m still confused.
Apparently Murrell is in a fresh legal aid row.
Below is a link to X, and Pam Gosals’ post about this very matter.
She is quoting a Herald article.
link to x.com
I would strongly suggest those of a mind to do so write to the SNP, demand their ring fenced donations for a referendum campaign or household guide be returned. Inform the fraudsters that if such is not forthcoming that you will pursue them through your Sheriff Court via the “Simple Procedure”:
link to scotcourts.gov.uk
All I need do is find the relevant bank statement!
I haven’t been an SNP member since 2015, but went on to join Alba and the ISP. I donated to a party of which I was not a member because they claimed to intend using my donation in a future referendum campaign.
Instead, they used the money to campaign on behalf of themselves in elections, and in doing so actively campaign against the other parties of which I was a member.
I did not donate to a referendum fund just for the party conducting the fundraising campaign to use the money for purposes not as advertised, and certainly not at the expense of other parties of which I was a member!
Robert I don’t believe for a minute that that course of action would be acceptable to genuine independence supporters who feel utterly and comprehensively BETRAYED by a FAKE independence party run by LIARS and THIEVES unconcerned that many people may have sacrificed so many things to participate in a worthy cause dear to their hearts
Cast your mind back Robert to the reason you donated to that fund, a fund that PROMISED that the monies would only be spent on a future referendum that would facilitate Scotland’s FREEDOM from this VILE oppressive union , instead that money was used by amoral scum to keep Scotland and Scots in continued subjugation within that VILE union
You have commented on WOS for as long as I have maybe even longer , you have listened to the continued LIES ,CORRUPTION and BROKEN PROMISES of Sturgeon , Russell , Swinney , Yousless and all the other carpetbaggers who have treated us genuine independence supporters with pure CONTEMPT, DERISION and DENIGRATION, PROMISING freedom from our colonial overseers whilst ignoring and deviating from every avenue available to do so, how many times has Stuart Campbell , Alex Salmond and other genuine fighters for indy pointed out the LUNACY of both votes Scum Nonce Party which allows yoonionists into HR, YET every one of those arseholes DELIBERATELY ignored their advice and SABOTAGED outcome after outcome , all to protect their GREED and avarice
Every one of them should be prosecuted for their part in the continuing lies and corruption that they inflicted on the people of Scotland
I have proposed many times that the people who donated to the ring fenced indy referendum should take a class action through a no win no fee solicitor to seek recompense directly from sturgeon
That’s right TH, you get em telt! With that fighting spirit we’ll soon be out of the union.
Your donation was via a bank transaction and if you have not changed your address or your bank account it is a doddle for the SNP to refund you directly to your bank account ! It only requires the effort and sense of justice them to do so !
I left the party a long time ago now, but it still breaks my heart to see what it has become. They are never going to deliver independence or even deliver any means of achieving it – and the sad fact is that they never intended that things should be any different.
I remember John Swinney from his first sojourn as party leader, before Alec Salmond had to come back to take over from him. He was always a devolutionist. I met Nicola Sturgeon when she stood beside Mr Salmond as his running mate for the deputy leadership, and I said at the time that I did not believe she really was behind independence.
It’s fine and dandy saying that now, but it was the impression I got at the time and I recall wondering why Mr Salmond had chosen her. Rumour had it that Roseanna Cunningham was to be his running mate, but that Ms Sturgeon threatened to stand against him for the leadership and take the youth/younger wings with her, splitting the vote and the party. I have no idea how true that was.
2015/16 was also the time that droves joined the party. They came, mainly, from Old Labour, and, while most of them were kosher, too many crept in from the hard left, and helped the party to be formed into a ‘woke’ fiefdom for Ms Sturgeon and her cohort. It all started to go wrong from early 2016 onwards, and 2016, when the Brexit bounce was totally wasted through lack of courage and another agenda.
It must be unarguable that certain top notchers in the party were/are British state assets. That, however, does nothing to mitigate the home-grown debacles that occurred, the stupidity of our Scottish institutions in going along with everything from the absurd to the certifiable and the sheer malignancy that passes for politics in Scotland.
In the coming months voters are going to realize the promise from the SNP of a referendum was a BIG LIE.
What does the SNP really have to offer nothing other than Independence and then that they can’t deliver on unless the party moved away from the Section 30 and that will never happen.
Everyone on Scotland is starting to realize Sturgeon was poison other than John Swinney, the man is a complete and utter fanny he’s more interested in protecting Sturgeon than setting his own legacy.
The SNP has only one slogan vote for the SNP for Independence this is the same Slogan they’ll use in the next Westminster election and it’ll fail and it’ll be the END of the SNP. Its just a pity Swinney can’t see the obvious if he did he’d see a better future for the SNP and Scotland but none of these things matter to Swinney only only the person he loves.
Talk about having your cake and eating it.
How does he manage to steal £400,000, spend it, and yet have enough left over to repay it, while at the same time qualifying for legal aid… and have £50,000 or so written off as legitimate expenditure from his wages for gifts for his wife.
Magic Squirrel talents indeed.
Once again though, the question is, how can it be legal for the SNP to have used stolen money to finance their 2017 GE campaign.
Quite the magic trick, isn’t it.
I’m with you on this, I think it’s one of the reasons Swinney was so very, very careful in his language yesterday to talk about party activities and referendum campaigning. They can’t afford any suggestion that it was spent on election campaigning (and went ballistic in 2020 when that claim was made). I also think they’ll be happy for the focus to stay on the 660K figure which is spread across a wider timescale. The 482K from 2017 is the smoking gun – this wasn’t money stolen by Murrell in secret, it was stolen by the Party in an election year and put to use. Stu says it’s a moot point whether it was spent on campaigning or to repay the Weir’s but I’m not sure it’s totally moot. The Weir’s loan was entirely proper and properly declared – if the referendum money was illegally diverted into electoral campaigning that seems like something else to me.
Some of us got refunded.
I have an archived 2019 email from SNP.org of receipt of the donation which stated that it had “been put into a ring-fenced fund” then a screenshot of a message from Peter Murrell with a donation reference number. I used that reference number 2 years later to ask for the money to be returned to the source and got a response from JIM HENDERSON, Party Fundraiser. I got the money back but they appear to have lost the records of what accounts the money originally came from.
As I posted on another thread, when I got my money back in 2021, they knew i>exactly what I’d donated for; they refused (quite rightly) to return a donation that had been spent correctly, but by refunding the one to the referendum campaign, conceded that that had not been spent correctly.
Now that Swinney has admitted this and revealed how it was spent, surely he’s confessed to fraud?
Re the ringfenced money being used for the 2017 GE.
Should this have been declared to the Electoral Commission as a donation from a single source/pot?
I didn’t ever study embezzlement. I didn’t ever study how to run a political party and I didn’t study how to take the piss out the people of an entire country.
But for once, just once, and I am aware that this is a REVOLUTIONARY idea, but would somebody for once in their sad sorry existence please tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the FUCKING TRUTH!
Is that too much to ask? It sure as hell would be a much more simpler thing to do.
BRIBERY, corruption & political «gifts»
The facts…link to archive.is
The consequences…link to archive.is
However, which comes first the will to be «influenced» through gifts or the will to acceptance of gifts whose purpose is to influence.
Either way the «demos» is the poorer.
QUICK: Email John Swinney and your constituency MSP, and all your list MSPS. If possible before FMQs are over.
My email subject is Scottish Government in Contempt of Court and is about standards in public life. I said that as voters have no control over politicians’ behaviour, I must rely on them to uphold the standards.
To John Swinney I merely said that he should stand down as no previous government has been found in contempt of court.
To my [LibDem] constituency MSP, I mentioned both the contempt finding AND the confession of illegal spending of ring-fenced funds, pointing out that it wasn’t solely party members who’d donated.
If we swamp Holyrood with similar emails about relying on them to uphold public standards, it might at least put the wind up some and encourage others to speak up.
“HMRC contacted over potential illegal VAT claims linked to Murrell embezzlement”
The Electoral Commission should also be contacted over the submission of false accounts.
Until they sort out the gerrymandering of the NEC that St Nic managed, there can be absolutely no reform within the party.
The special interest groups who were allowed onto the NEC, each with a vote, but which were NEVER voted in by the wider membership, are the main reason NS managed to bulldoze through her pet projects.
JS will still have that lever to bend the will of the toothless NEC any way he wants.
I have a small question: WHERE THE HELL ARE THE POLICE?!
There are persistent allegations that senior Poileas Plod are quite exceeding displeased both that COPFS under our independent Lord Advocate at the time, Ms Bain (she who is a personal friend of our former First Minister and sat in her cabinet) chose to offer no proceedings against Ms Sturgeon despite the Police report submitted regarding her behaviour and that Ms Sturgeon herself has been proclaiming at every opportunity that she has been “cleared” by Police Scotland after a thorough investigation.
Also on the BBC Red button it states “It came after First Minister John Swinney confirmed that the cash was (for) the SNP’s “ongoing activity”, insisting it had been spent (on) “independence objectives”. How can it be for and already spent on.
It also states on the BBC Red button “The SNP is seeking compensation from former chief executive Peter Murrell after he admitted embezzling more than £400,000 from the party”. Surely your seeking to recover the £400,000 and to seek compensation.
Fair fa’ yer dishonest sonsie face
Great chieftain o’ the Scots Nat race
Aboon them aw ye took yer place
As Peter’s honey
Weel are ye worthy o’ disgrace for stealing money.
Yer empty pockets ye both filled
Afore ye headed for the hills
Leavin’ ahent a load o’ shills
Tae take yer lead
And through their lips
Fresh lies instil
Tae the brain dead.
Mark how the Nat oan garbage feeds
The National is aw he reads
He disnae ken that indy’s deid
Thanks tae the Murrells
The single brain cell in his heid
Is in a whirl.
Oh Power, wha hauds us in His care
An’ dishes oot oor bill o’ fare
Auld Scotia wants tae hear nae mair
Fae Greens an’ trannies
Send us another ‘feminist’
Who loves the fanny.
Yep, I saw a pathetic, decrepit, old and biscuit ersed bunch of SNP ‘Activists’ in midlothian last week on the day Murrel was arrested. Embarassed and cowering they proceeded to act if nothing had happened. Business as usual.
Not that there is anything at all wrong with being auld, but,… These power hungry decrepit Ficks should move aside for true independance supporters to lead the way.
Midlothian SNP is a hive of suscpiciuos cretins desperate to elevate their profile at any expence.
We cannot allow them and the wierdo greens to be anywhere near another independance campaign!!
Remember…. Midlothian SNP are half arssed amatuers who would line their pockets at the drop of a hat.
Since £58,735 was removed from the charges that Murrell admitted to, presumably Police Scotland will now be looking to hold someone else responsible for embezzling this amount? Perhaps a curious journalist should be asking them for clarification?
Where are the meeting minutes, records of discussion, when and by whom, for the decisions to redirect these ring fenced donations into general revenue? Whybwas no notification given to donors, along with an option for refund on request?
Or were there simply no discussions, and the money was never protected and was always just thrown into the money pot with no intention ever to be used for an independence referendum, or a booklet?
What does Sturgeon have to aay about it? She was leader when the money was misappropriated by the SNP.
Kuenssberg really needs to ask Stu to prep her before she ever attempts another interview with Sturgeon.
Complete cover up.
Basic crimes reported to Crown Office by Police Scotland.
No action taken against individuals.
Everyone accountable is a public servant – disclose all advice, it’s in the public interest.
Where is the £667k?
Police Scotland have issued statement stating that no further action / investigation to be undertaken even after original complainer has reinforced complaint. Clearly Police Scotland know the answer and have the facts. If they do, Crown Office know them and have decided not to prosecute. Why?
Scottish Parliament should be ‘suspended’ by Westminster and control taken back by them until full enquiry is undertaken to ascertain and publish all facts.
False accounts, contempt of court, Salmond enquiry, etc. Rotten to the core and they have all been at the heart of it
kings of crisis management?
was that the second single, after dog eat dog??
So much excitement of late; maybe time to get off the sugar and have a hot chocolate instead
Murrell seems to have a permanent expression on his face, one that says : ” don’t look on my hard drive ”
– oddly, that is how Gary Glitter got done, went to PC World (useless, useless, people) and says : “fix my PC … BUT DONT LOOK IN MY PERSONAL FOLDERS …”
which just goes to show, a wee bit of computer knowledge can prevent a whole lot of trouble; get the back off, check the GPU, the hard drive – swap out the hard drive, clone it, wipe it, and only then do you send it to the shop
or removable hard drives, or USB thumbdrives, and encryption; and if you want to do a good fraud, stick to bitcoin, the bitcoin wallet on an encrypted hard drive, or a little USB, inserted up the poop-wallet
Sadwad at FMQs asking Sweeno about VAT fraud … well, there’s certain kinds of people who know a lot about that one, business people, of a mercantile class, who are all married to each other and first cousins as well …
maybe, someone will explain to Sweeno the old “cash and carry fire” stratagem, and the SNP’s bank book will look rosy in no time. Also, a fire is a great way to get rid of annoying documents – like the english did in the national archives when all the afro-caribs were looking for documents to start a slavery class-action against them …
if the famous train robber, Butch Cassidy, ran the “hole in the wall”-gang, would Peter be the leader of the “glory hole in the wall”-gang
So, the clownshow have been found in contempt of court but absolutely no one will be punished in anyway shape or form. Those responsible should be jailed.
The SNP has had to open urgent discussions with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). Because Murrell faked accounting codes and invoices to register personal luxury items (like the £124,550 motorhome and high-end watches) as legitimate party expenses, the SNP may have accidentally reclaimed VAT on them. If HMRC determines the party illegally reclaimed up to 20% in tax on Murrell’s £400,000 buying spree, the SNP will face a massive bill for unpaid back-taxes and penalties.
If there’s money to be recovered from Murrell’s estate, why is the taxpayer funding his defence through Legal Aid? If there is a recovery, all it means is that the Scottish taxpayer ends up picking up the tab for something Murrell wasn’t entitled to potentiallyallowing the SNP to recover funds from him that should rightfully fall to the taxpayer. Why is he getting Legal Aid?. It’s another astonishing decision
So the crown office doesn’t pursue the sturgeon despite apparent police evidence and Murrell does a deal to protect to her.
????
The SNP significantly changed its constitution and rules during Sturgeon’s reign, possibly in 2017 or 2018? I don’t have a copy of the before and after documents but I wonder whether any of these changes affected Murrell’s ability to embezzle?
It’s certainly a strange situation to observe, isn’t it? The party’s potential gain feels quite cynical given the previous revelations.