CRAIG Whyte's desire to make money saw him begin playing the stock market as a 15-year-old pupil at the independent Kelvinside Academy in Glasgow's west end.

He left school with £20,000 in his bank account.

Within four years Whyte was in charge of his own plant hire company, Whyte Hire, but it went out of business in the 1990s with debts of £300,000.

Of the failed venture, Motherwell-born Mr Whyte, 39, said it "hurt my pride more than anything else".

Nonetheless, he carried on with his entrepreneurial ambitions – branching out into security, manufacturing and property – and by 26 was Scotland's youngest self-made millionaire.

In May 2000, he married Kim Martin, originally from Carmunnock, in Naples, Florida. The couple spent most of their married life in the millionaires' playground of Monaco until moving back to Scotland in 2006, when Whyte bought the Speyside retreat Castle Grant – the traditional seat of the chiefs of the Clan Grant near Grantown-on-Spey – for £720,000.

The couple, who have three children, have been separated since the summer of 2010 and in January this year, Kim, 42, filed for divorce from the tycoon.

By the time Whyte declared his interest in owning Rangers – the team he had supported his entire life – he was heading up a complex maze of inter-linked firms around the world. Registered at some of his companies under his middle name, Thomas, Whyte was running a Russian-doll-style arrangement of firms, some dormant, and in turn owned by another branch of the business empire.

As chairman of Wavetower Ltd and Liberty Capital Ltd, a London-based firm, he specialised in buying distressed assets, turning them around and selling them on at a profit. He was hailed as the billionaire businessman who had stepped in at the 11th hour to rescue the debt-ridden club.

However, within months of the takeover questions began to surface about the suitability of Whyte as the owner of one of Scotland's flagship brands. At first the most vocal critics were the directors he axed in a mass clearout of the former Rangers executive team weeks into the takeover.

While he rubbished their criticisms as sour grapes, a BBC documentary in October last year was less easy to ignore. The documentary revealed he had served a director's ban and made other allegations which he denied.

Though Rangers later confirmed Whyte had been banned from holding directorships, he threatened to sue over what he alleged to be "false and misleading" information. Since then, there has been a mounting sense among fans that perhaps – despite the bluster – the Emperor has no clothes.