Alex Salmond had built up about £120,000 of company assets when he asked the public to fund his civil legal action against the Scottish Government last year, it has emerged.
The first accounts for Slainte Media Ltd, the company behind his weekly programme on Russian TV, show it had total assets of £89,778 at the end of November.
Mr Salmond has a half share in the firm, with the other held by the show’s producer and co-presenter, former SNP MP Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh.
Mr Salmond’s share of the total equity in the company was therefore just under £45,000.
The former first minister also had net assets of just over £75,000 in a second media company, Chronicles Of Deer Ltd, at the end of February 2018. Mr Salmond is the sole shareholder in Chronicles Of Deer, which handles publishing income from his referendum diary The Dream Shall Never Die.
Read more: Alex Salmond reports Scottish Government to information watchdog
His total known equity was therefore about £120,000 across the two firms, which between them had about £300,000 in the bank.
The Slainte Media accounts, published at Companies House, cover the period from the firm’s creation in July 2017 to November 30 last year, shortly after his crowdfunder appeal.
They state current assets of £239,156, including £226,812 “cash at bank and at hand”.
This was offset by £158,380 due to unidentified creditors, leaving net current assets of £80,776. Fixed assets of £1,502 and a £7,500 investment – thought to be a 50% stake in a fledgling IT firm – took total assets less current liabilities to £89,778.
Other accounts filed last year show Chronicles Of Deer had total assets of £147,413, including £94,835 “cash in hand and at bank”, at February 28, 2018.
The accounts offer no figures on Mr Salmond’s potential tax liabilities and it is not known if there would have been any difficulties in using the assets or bank funds held by the companies to cover legal costs.
After taking creditors into accounts, total net assets and share equity were £75,838, compared to £24,369 in 2017 and £67,127 in 2016.
Despite the success of his ventures, Mr Salmond last August asked supporters to help pay for a legal action against the Scottish Government over its handling of disputed sexual misconduct allegations against him – it raised £100,000 in under three days.
He later won a judicial review at the Court of Session after showing the Government bungled an in-house investigation into claims made against him in early 2018.
Ministers admitted the lead investigating official had been in prior contact with his accusers, rendering the process unlawful, unfair and “tainted by apparent bias”.
A Holyrood committee is now looking into how the process went awry and left taxpayers with a £500,000 legal bill.
After the Chronicles Of Deer figures emerged last year, Mr Salmond’s spokesman said all contributed to the crowdfunder knew the objectives and that the sums raised would only be used for the purpose of Judicial Review, with any excess donated to good causes.
Separately, Mr Salmond appeared in court in January charged with two counts of attempted rape, nine of sexual assault, two of indecent assault and one of breach of the peace.
He strongly denies any criminality.
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