Craig Short is one of the V11

T'was ever thus. How many talented individuals in Hollywood have been done over by their managers?

It's not great, but I hope they're not looking for the taxpayer to make things right.

Just put your money in a bank.

Tommy Johnson, briefly of this parish, was also involved. It is ridiculous.

These players didn't blow all their cash while playing; rather, they took the wise advice and worked with an investment firm working with the LMA to invest for the future.

The charlatans running it lost the lot.

I never made the link with Tommy Johnson, so thanks for pointing that out, Kieran.

Watching this makes me wonder about Gary Speed.

Listening to these guys, you can't help wondering…

My investment advice is to keep your sweaty little hands on your money. Often, investment advisors are just salesmen. I always ask them how they invest their own money, which catches them a bit by surprise. Often, it turns out they have no money to invest and they think their over-mortgaged property is an asset.

The other thing is, if they make a loss on your money, they won't tell you. At least when you lose your own money, you will know about it. My understanding is that clubs do advise young players on money management, but such is life — some will get caught out somehow.

I was talking to a ex-girlfriend of Keith Gillespie in the local sauna. She told me she had just decided to go it alone buying a house, rather than co ownership, for herself and her 4-year-old son. Having signed for the house on a Friday, Keith announced on the Saturday night date that he had blown £60,000 on the horses that day. She blurted out "What the fuck!" Needless to say, she quickly moved on.

Better advise I reckon was from Bob who was made redundant having been asked, from shovelling coal off a boat onto a quay for 25 years. He went on back-to-back holidays with his wife to Spain for 3 years, spending the lot. It continued for another two years as his wife was also made redundant. He then was going to cash in his matured insurance policy.

One of the happiest men I ever came across, enjoyed every cent of his money and loved the people he gave it to. Craig Short would have been better to do something like that. Enjoy your money – you will be better off.

Michael, I think you could be right.

One player being pursued for £20M in unpaid tax, and the investments are worthless.

They're all in a financial abyss.

They'll all be declared bankrupt and lost it all if it plays out. Desperate.

Seems the fundamental issue is the HMRC (or the government?) changing the rules on the huge (40%) tax rebates provided in respect of the film industry investments.

I'll have to watch it again to see what I missed about why the tax bills come back to them.

Per Ai

Tax bills are coming out of film schemes because UK courts have ruled that these schemes were not legitimate commercial investments but rather aggressive tax avoidance vehicles. As a result, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is demanding that investors repay the tax relief they claimed, along with significant interest and fees.
How the film schemes worked

In the early 2000s, the UK government introduced tax incentives to encourage investment in the British film industry. Promoters developed complex partnership schemes, such as Ingenious and Eclipse, that exploited these rules to offer wealthy individuals substantial tax relief.

The schemes were structured to create artificial trading losses that investors, as partners, could then deduct from their personal income. The key mechanism was often a "sale-and-leaseback" arrangement where a film partnership would acquire the rights to a film, often with significant bank loans, and then lease them back to a distributor.

Why the schemes failed
HMRC challenged the schemes in court, arguing they were designed primarily for tax avoidance rather than genuine commercial purposes. The courts ultimately agreed, delivering a series of landmark victories for HMRC. The specific reasons for the rulings included:

No genuine trading: The courts found that many film partnerships were not actually carrying on a trade with a view to making a profit, which is a key requirement for the tax relief claimed.

Circular funding: In schemes like Eclipse, investors used loans to fund their "investment," and the money flowed in a circular pattern designed to create a tax-deductible interest payment. The courts determined this was not a legitimate expense.

Excessive tax relief: Many schemes enabled investors to claim more in tax relief than the amount of money they actually risked.

The consequences for investors
The legal rulings paved the way for HMRC to take action against thousands of investors. The consequences include:
Repayment of tax: Investors are required to repay the tax they originally saved.
Accelerated Payment Notices (APNs): In some cases, HMRC used APNs to force investors to pay the disputed tax upfront while the cases were still being litigated.
Interest and penalties: A significant portion of the total bills consists of interest charges, which have accumulated over years of litigation, and penalties for using an illegal tax avoidance scheme.
Dry tax: Many investors now face a "dry tax" charge, where they owe tax on money they never actually received as income. This is because the tax relief was denied, but the interest on the loans used to fund the schemes remains a liability.

Theyre buggered. They don't have the assets, and need to pay the tax that they avoided previously.

Scamming people in the UK and abroad seems to be rife. Whether it is footballers or the man in the street. There also seems to be little recompense for the victims. Call me a tree hugging old liberal, but I'd love to see a few fraudsters have their hands chopped off in public to disuade future participants.

It bothers me that our current Chancellor wants to encourage investment as a way for ordinary folks to enrich themselves.
If the right education doesn’t accompany it she is going to be directing some into the murky fringes of financial management.
The tendency is always going to be to go for the best return on investment (on the face of it you’d be a fool not to) which means the poorly advised are going to be vulnerable to making poor choices when investing.

During Covid billions were lost in fraudulent PPP contracts and also fraudulent claims for the furlough scheme. The former littered with cronies of government, the latter mainly ordinary Joe's. Ironically research later suggested a preponderance of Brits to consider fraud as acceptable crime... all of this at a cost to the taxpayer.

Another example is Thames Water: zombie company after years of paying billions to investors. The taxpayer will bail them out.

Myriad of other cases. Horizon at Post Office. Infected Blood. HS2 overruns. Taxpayer.

And it's a diminishing pool of taxpayers as almost 3,000 per day disappear onto welfare. I actually feel sorry for the Government. Not as much as I feel sorry for the over-burdened, under-served taxpayer.

Remind me who the criminals are?

Paul #2, banks fail too.

Dale #10, some countries go farther than hand chopping, it's a death penalty in Viet Nam.

Si #11, fortunately in UK there are some reputable fund management products that are a lot less risky than the murky offshore products, and they actually make money.

The reality is that most people invest based on recommendations from people they trust. Madoffs whole business was based on referrals. The LMA and various clubs were in bed with these guys. Yes the government changed the goals but regardless the investments failed. The government changed just moved players from being people who lost money to people who owed money. We often complain about the wages players earn. And I personally have little sympathy for the Keith Gillespie types Jerome mentions who frit away their cash. But the likes of Rodney Wallace, Short, Sean Davis even the RS Danny Murphy who seems like no idiot trusted “professionals” recommended by personal contacts and not only lost everything but ended up in debt. Several of them mentioned suicidal adiation as a consequence. It’s fucked up. It’s not right.