FORMER Rangers chief executive Charles Green and finance chief Imran Ahmad will face no further proceedings in connection with the club fraud and conspiracy case as prosecutors say there is "now no evidence of a crime".
The decision by the Crown Office finally marks the end of the two-and-a-half-year long proceedings which saw only Craig Whyte face trial and has led to no convictions.
Mr Whyte, who ended up being the last man standing in the long-running case, was cleared in the summer of last year of all charges in connection with his takeover of seven years ago.
But the Crown Office had consistently confirmed up till the end of last year that matters regarding Mr Green and Mr Ahmad remained under consideration and "enquiries are continuing" in the wake of Mr Whyte's acquittal.
That is despite the fact that the time limit on fresh charges under 65(1)(b) of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 expired in September, 2016 and legal experts had said it would be very difficult to bring new charges arising from the two buyouts because of the time bar.
Now it has emerged that the Crown Office has decided to take no further action in the case.
A Crown Office spokesman said: "Crown Counsel has considered the matter and instructed no further action on the basis that there is now no evidence of a crime.”
The original 15 charges in the Rangers case had covered fraud and conspiracy surrounding Mr Whyte's purchase of Rangers from Sir David Murray for a pound in 2011 and the buying of the club's liquidated assets for £5.5 million by the Sevco consortium four months after the business fell into administration in February, 2012.
In June, 2016, it emerged that there were to be no further proceedings against David Whitehouse, David Grier and Paul Clark, who worked for Rangers administrators Duff and Phelps and former club secretary Gary Withey, who worked for Whyte's London law firm, Collyer Bristow and advised Mr Whyte during his takeover.
It was confirmed that allegations against Mr Green, 64, and Mr Ahmad, 47, had been dropped, although Crown counsel said they were considering the position in relation to Green and later it emerged it was to both.
Among the dropped charges was an allegation that Mr Green appropriated for his own use and purposes the sum of £5.5 million which he had obtained by fraud and that he purchased the "business and assets of the club through its corporate entity Sevco Scotland Limited with money provided by investors to Sevco 5088 Limited without their knowledge and agreement."
Also dropped were allegations of fraud and a conspiracy to commit serious organised crime over the Sevco purchase of the club's assets for a sum below its true market value depriving the creditors of rightful sums due to them.
Mr Whitehouse and Mr Clark had faced a number of dropped allegations including conspiring with Mr Whyte, Mr Green and Mr Ahmad to defraud the club's creditors of funds and assets.
It was also alleged in that dropped charge that the pair allowed Mr Whyte, Mr Green and Mr Ahmad to acquire the club at "significantly below the true market value".
The dropped charge claimed Mr Ahmad paid Mr Clark and Mr Whitehouse an exclusivity fee of £200,000 as the joint administrators of so-called oldco Rangers.
But it is not expected to be the end of the matter as far as the accused is concerned.
In November, it emerged Mr Whitehouse, 52, was suing former Police Scotland chief constable Philip Gormley and Lord Advocate James Wolffe QC for £9 million with lawyers claiming he was "unlawfully detained" by detectives in November 2014.
David Whitehouse (left) and Paul Clark (right)
It emerged during proceedings that Mr Whitehouse's colleague Mr Clark was also suing the chief constable and Lord Advocate.
Mr Whitehouse and Mr Clark were appointed joint administrators of Rangers in 2012 following the sale of the club to Craig Whyte.
They also said that throughout the period of detention, there was no reasonable grounds to suspect that Mr Whitehouse had broken the law.
Mr Whitehouse also claimed that police obtained evidence without following proper legal procedure.
An indictment against Mr Whitehouse was issued without any "evidential basis", his lawyers said.
The actions of police and prosecutors are said to have damaged his reputation of being a first-class financial professional and led to a £1.75m loss in earnings.
The chief constable and the Lord Advocate claimed that police and prosecutors acted in accordance with correct legal procedure.
They also believe the case should be dismissed because the Lord Advocate is exempt from civil action from people who were the subject of a legal investigation.
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