Alert readers will know that for the past 15 months Wings has been investigating the apparent disappearance of almost £600,000 raised from supporters of independence (not just SNP voters) by the SNP in two fundraising campaigns in 2017 and 2019.
The money was supposedly to be “ring-fenced” for spending ONLY in a future indyref, and the party gave explicit and hotly-stated guarantees at the time of the first appeal that the money would definitely NOT be spent on party business.
But when the party’s 2019 accounts were published they showed that the SNP had less than £100,000 in the bank at the end of that year, and total net assets of less than £272,000. The £600,000 from the fundraisers was nowhere to be found, and the then-party treasurer’s feeble insistence that it was “woven through” the accounts in some unspecified way satisfied only the most gullible.
This week Wings Over Scotland has been told that the matter is now officially under investigation by the police.
We have few concrete details but what we know is as follows. Wings has been given the following statement:
“On 25 March 2021 I phoned 101 to make a complaint and I received an incident number and an appointment at Barrhead Police Station.
I can confirm I then made a complaint to Police Scotland on Saturday 27th March 2021 at Barrhead Police Station, stating that following the resignation of three members of the Finance and Audit Committee of the SNP, having been refused access to the SNP accounts, I told the police that I believed that financial fraud may have occurred.
That same evening two members of the Financial Investigation Unit of Police Scotland came to my home and I gave them a formal statement under the incident number PS202103252082. In addition [REDACTED] gave donations towards the missing money and he is alleging in a civil case that this money was wrongly used. This is currently subject to a civil case at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.”
(We are not disclosing the identity of the complainer at this time.)
We were also informed last night, by a different source, that on Tuesday of this week, 30 March, officers visited the home of the First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, and her husband Peter Murrell in connection with their investigation, a few hours prior to the First Minister’s appearance on a BBC televised debate, at which some commentators remarked that she appeared tired and sub-par.
For clarity, we must emphasise that despite our best efforts we have NOT yet been able to verify this claim. We contacted Police Scotland shortly before 9pm last night, who gave us the following comment 14 hours later:
“Hi Stuart
Apologies for the delay in responding but just to advise, we don’t provide information on who we may or may not be speaking to.
Kind regards
Ann Marie
Ann Marie MacLean
Corporate Communications National Newsdesk
Police Scotland”
However, we believe our source to be a reliable one.
We asked if Police Scotland could at least simply confirm the fact of the investigation in general terms, and received this response:
“Hi Stuart
Sorry can you please just clarify what matter you’re referring to, specifically?
Many thanks,
Hannah
Corporate Communications National News Desk
Police Scotland”
We explained the basic outline of the allegations and passed on the incident number which had been given to us. A couple of hours later we got this reply:
“Hi Stuart
Just to advise that I am not able to provide any further information to you at this time.
Kind regards
Ann Marie
Ann Marie MacLean
Corporate Communications National Newsdesk
Police Scotland”
As readers will have read hundreds if not thousands of statements from the police to the press confirming that an investigation into something is ongoing but declining to give further details, their reluctance to either confirm or deny the mere existence of this one seems rather peculiar.
(At a minimum, if the incident number we were given was a fake, we cannot imagine a reason for Police Scotland not to say so. And if it’s real, why is it a secret?)
This site makes no allegations of criminality against anyone. But it is a matter of public recorded fact, undisputed by the SNP, that it raised almost £600,000 for what it calls the “Referendum Appeal Fund”, and it is also a matter of public recorded fact that in the party’s last published accounts it did not have even half that much money at its disposal, either in cash or net assets. These two facts appear impossible to reconcile, and in over five months we have received no replies to our enquiries to both the party’s current and previous treasurers on the subject.
At this point in time there remain far more questions than answers about the matter. We can only hope it’s true that the latter are now at least being actively sought.
