A claim over the whole of the £18 million creditors payout pot of the liquidated Rangers oldco could earn Craig Whyte £6 million, it has emerged.

The company formed by Craig Whyte to buy the club off Sir David Murray for £1 four years ago, is taking legal action over the claim which has been rejected by liquidators.

Rangers FC Group, formerly Wavetower, is now contesting the decision by liquidators BDO through the Court of Session.

The Rangers FC Group has taken over the claim from Law Financial Ltd, a company previously linked to Whyte, that it is owed up to £25 million, saying it holds the security over the assets of the in-liquidation Rangers oldco RFC 2012 plc.

The Herald revealed last month that new documents show that LFL had now taken control of Rangers FC Group which held the security.

New documents show that ultimate controllers of LFL and the action are 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.

Glasgow Times:

Worthington Group plc, confirmed in filings two years ago, that when it had the option of purchasing a 100 per cent stake in LFL, it was obliged to pay Whyte £1 million in unsecured convertible loan notes and one third of the proceeds of any assets, claims or rights owned by his companies.

An interim £10 million payout to unsecured creditors of the in-liquidation oldco was due to have been made at the end of July to the tune of around seven pence, but it is still held up.

The claim if successful, would make Rangers FC Group the only secured creditor and first in line ahead of HMRC, despite last week's victory in the Big Tax Case involving Employment Benefit Trust payments to former Rangers staff.

Glasgow Times: Ibrox Stadium

It has been confirmed that Rangers FC Group have begun a Court of Session appeal against the BDO decision to reject the claim. Both sides have until December 28 to make clear the extent of the appeal and for BDO to lodge answers to that.

BDO has previously asked the court to dispense with the any potentially time consuming and potentially expensive future hearings to settle the issue and approve a deadline for a full claim to be submitted to the liquidators.

The liquidators had previously indicated to creditors that if the claim was pursued, as it has been, it could hold up payouts for some time.

Rangers FC Group says 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 funds by organising a deal to sell off three years of future season ticket rights to Ticketus activated when he became owner.

Glasgow Times:

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 appeared 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.

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

Glasgow Times:

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.

Filings show that Craig Whyte is no longer a director of Rangers FC Group, and the four directors are Worthington Group executives Doug Ware and Richard Spurway, LFL and Liberty Corporate.

Craig Whyte's father, Thomas Whyte, was the sole director of Liberty Corporate until January, 2014. It is now controlled by LFL.

Mr Whyte was a founding director of LFL, which claimed to have former Rangers newco Sevco 5088 as a subsidiary, but stood down from the board in August, 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".

BDO declined to comment on the case. Worthington director Richard Spurway refused to comment.