RANGERS are fighting a legal claim for well over £200,000 for services claimed to have been provided by convicted criminal Rafat Rizvi.
Singaporean firm Orlit Enterprises originally raised an action at Glasgow Sheriff Court in 2013 after claiming they were due payments amounting to £400,000.
Rangers had brushed off the matter at the time while facing the prospect of a winding up order over the disputed bill.
Now it has been confirmed that the claim for £200,000 plus interest and expenses relates to services which Orlit claims were provided by Mr Rizvi.
Rizvi's role in proceedings raised controversy as he was wanted in Indonesia over a conviction for banking crimes.
UK-born Rizvi was sentenced in Indonesia to a 15-year jail term in absentia and a £775,000 fine for 'stealing assets' following the collapse of the country's Century Bank in 2009. At one point he faced the possibility of a death penalty.
An initial debt is said to have arisen over services supplied by Orlit, who were said to have been hired to find Far East investors to effectively fund Charles Green’s buyout of the club in 2012.
Rangers said the Orlit case is likely to be heard in early 2019 and said: "The board believes the claim is without merit and is vigorously defending the proceedings."
Indonesia's government claimed they contacted Rangers in September, 2014, in a bid to stop them dealing with Mr Rizvi who had been photographed leaving a Glasgow restaurant with bus company owner Sandy Easdale, the former Rangers director who remains one of the club's biggest individual shareholders.
At the time the club denied any link with Mr Rizvi who was then wanted by Interpol.
Mr Easdale along with directors Derek Llambias and Barry Leach, said to be sympathetic to then major shareholder Mike Ashley, the Sports Direct supremo, were ousted from the board in 2015 when Dave King and his Three Bears group mounted a takeover.
Indonesia’s deputy attorney general, Andhi Nirwanto, said at the time: “We’ve already approached this club to tell them our views on the matter.”
The country then made a fresh plea to Interpol’s HQ in France to arrest Rizvi and take him home to face justice.
Four of the Rangers board before the Dave King takeover. From left Derek Llambias, Sandy Easdale, Barry Easdale and James Easdale.
Attorney General Basrief Arief said at the time: “We have filed a new request to Interpol to hunt down the fugitive Rafat Rizvi after reports he was involved in buying a Scottish football club, Rangers FC.
“We beg Interpol to look for him and bring him back to our homeland in order to accept his sentence.”
Indonesia does not have a extradition treaty with the UK, which meant Rizvi was safe here.
Interpol cancelled an international wanted persons' alert over Rizvi in 2015.
Orlit Enterprises is run by Chan Fook Meng, a one-time business associate of former Rangers chief executive Charles Green.
In a 2013 statement, Rangers did concede that they owed Orlit money, but claimed the requested amount was incorrect. The statement read: “Rangers have agreed a figure to settle this issue and it is a figure which is significantly less than the initial demand.”
The alleged connection to Mr Rizvi came to light as it was revealed there was a possibility of Rangers being purchased by an associated of Malaysian businessman Datuk Faizoull Bin Ahmad. He and two associates were given a tour of Ibrox and Rangers’ training base at Murray Park in September, 2014.
Mr Bin Ahmad denied that he knew anything of Rizfi and said: “I have no idea who he is. The report claiming I know Rizvi is false.”
The Union of Fans - the umbrella group for disaffected supporters, many of whom boycotted season-ticket purchases -n demanded that the Rangers plc board remove Mr Easdale from any responsibility within the club because of the Rizvi link.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel