A COMPANY previously linked to former Rangers owner Craig Whyte has taken a claim for the whole of the £18 million creditors payout pot of the liquidated club plc to court, it has been confirmed.

Law Financial Ltd has lodged a defence at the Court of Session over its claim that it is owed up to £25 million, saying it holds a security over the assets of Rangers oldco RFC 2012 plc.

The Herald can reveal that new documents show that LFL has now taken control of the company that Mr Whyte used to buy the club from Sir David Murray for £1 in May 2011, and which held that security.

The claim if successful, would make LFL the only secured creditor and first in line ahead of the taxman and ticket agency Ticketus and other unsecured debtors to take money from the pot.

LFL had been given till Friday to lodge the answers to its claim, which oldco liquidators, accountancy firm BDO are to contest, believing LFL has no rights

BDO is understood to have asked the court to dispense with the any potentially time consuming and potentially expensive future hearing to settle the issue and approve a deadline for a full claim to be submitted to the liquidators.

BDO has previously indicated to creditors that if the claim is pursued it could hold up payouts for some time.

An interim £10 million payout to unsecured creditors was due to have been made at the end of July to the tune of around seven pence, but that has had to be delayed because of the claim.

LFL say they hold the security over the assets reassigned to the company run by Mr Whyte that paid off an £18m bank debt as a condition of his purchase of the club from Sir David Murray for £1 in May 2011. He raised the funds by organising a deal to sell off three years of future season ticket rights to Ticketus activated when he became owner.

The security was originally set up in 1999 in favour of the Bank of Scotland in response to Rangers' ballooning debt figure, to secure a charge over its income and assets.

Mr Whyte, who presided over the Rangers oldco's plunge into administration in February, 2012, always insisted that the company he used to buy the club, which subsequently became Rangers FC Group, had paid off the debt and inherited the bank's security over the Ibrox outfit's assets. Documents lodged with Companies House appear to confirm this.

LFL is now owned by the Worthington Group, an investment firm also once connected to Mr Whyte and who in October last year said would continue to stake a legal claim over Rangers’ business and assets.

But BDO are understood to agree with oldco administrators Duff and Phelps that LFL cannot have preferred creditor status, and any security is invalid as Mr Whyte did not use his own money to buy the club.

Mr Whyte said his company had a legitimate claim over Rangers' assets, including Ibrox Stadium and Murray Park, because he had underwritten the London ticket agency Ticketus's investment through his offshore company Liberty Capital and was "on the line" for £27.5m in guarantees and cash.

Ticketus have accepted they have no secured creditor claim and have been pursuing Mr Whyte through the courts for the money he borrowed from them.

Mr Whyte has faced court hearings in London amid ongoing efforts by Ticketus to recover £18m damages from him after the agency successfully sued the venture capitalist for damages.

Ticketus had said Mr Whyte fraudulently or negligently made representations which induced the company to enter into agreements related to the sale or purchase of Rangers season tickets.

Mr Whyte had disputed the claim - but a judge had ruled against him.

New documents have now emerged that show that Craig Whyte is no longer a director of Rangers FC Group, and LFL and Worthington Group chief executive Doug Ware are now the sole directors.

But Whyte's company Liberty Corporate Ltd holds a fixed and floating charge over all RFCG property assets present and future. According to the latest return, the sole shareholder is Liberty Capital Limited, which is owned by Mr Whyte and registered to the British Virgin Islands. His father, Thomas Whyte, was the sole director of Liberty Corporate until January, 2014.

A move to strike RFCG from the register of companies has been suspended. The company, formerly known as Wavetower, was supposed to have lodged its first set of accounts over three years ago.

Mr Whyte was a founding director of Law Financial, which claimed to have former Rangers newco Sevco 5088 as a subsidiary, until he was barred from being a company director in the UK for 15 years in October, last year.

In April, 2013, Worthington revealed it had been granted an option to acquire the whole of Law Financial Ltd which included Sevco 5088, which it said held a claim "independently reviewed by leading counsel...to all of the business and assets of RFC 2012 plc which were purchased by Sevco 5088 Limited or Sevco Scotland Ltd from the administrators... in June of 2012".

If the option was exercised, it would also give a third of the proceeds of any assets, claims or rights currently owned by Mr Whyte’s companies - including the legal action and the film and book rights to his story – to him.

BDO declined to comment on the case. Worthington were approached for comment.