Operation Branchform, launched in July 2021 finally hit the skids and failed to bring any charges
The Crown Office told the police to start again, from scratch. I fear another burning issue might need to be referred to the Met.
Jan 2019: A burning issue: The FBI modelled crime-fighting agency once known as Scotland’s “untouchables” was shut down amid allegations of corruption and graft.
The Met reviewed the work of the agency and found that Police Scotland had most likely compromised investigations after piles of confidential files were incinerated in the car park of the former agency.
Officers at SCDEA were ordered to buy a garden incinerator and petrol to destroy paperwork after the unit managing Scotland’s undercover operations was exposed as a chaotic and potentially criminal shambles in 2011.
After the incineration of sensitive and secret documents had been revealed, Livingstone ordered a review, called “Operation Towering”, which concluded there was nothing more to investigate because the SCDEA no longer existed and Police Scotland managed covert operations differently.
However, critics say the force ignored allegations that senior officers ordered the immediate and extraordinary destruction of paperwork to conceal the chaos before the Crown Office could decide if fraud or any other crimes had been committed.
A Met Police review of “Operation Towering” did not share Livingstone’s conclusion that the burning of documents, against all standard operating procedures, was not a cover-up.
The Met review said: “The timely manner of the incineration, its closeness in time to a professional standards investigation into the SOU [Special Operations Unit] and the lack of any audit or record of destruction, throws sufficient doubt that this can be the only conclusion.”
The report was presented to the Scottish Police Authority board, responsible for holding Livingstone to account. One board member, Tom Halpin, said Livingstone must dispel any perception that he: “marked his own homework”.
The disappearance of £600,000 from the SNP accounts- All is not yet lost might be a civil action will recover it
So the way forward is established. Murrell is to stand alone to face as yet unspecified charge off embezzlement. But all is not yet lost.
The many Scots who donated to the SNP Independence fund might yet claim a “failure to exercise due diligence”, through the civil courts against the the officers who signed off the accounts namely: Murrell, Beattie and Sturgeon. A liability for the recovery of £600K plus interest would bankrupt them
A Crown Office representative volunteered this: “Where allegations are made against people or institutions in which the public have placed trust, it is the responsibility of the authorities to conduct a thorough investigation to determine if there is evidence that criminal conduct has occurred.”
“We understand public curiosity about this investigation. However, the Crown does not publicly share details of confidential inquiries where there are no proceedings in court. This protects the rights of the individuals concerned who are entitled to a presumption of innocence.”
Seems like the Crown prosecuters decided prosecuteral follow up was not in the public interest and decided on a “psuedo not proven” verdict.
There is still the matter of the probity of the annual accounts to be resolved but this is not a police matter apparently, which is surprising in the prevailing circumstances where the SNP Party leader is the alleged fraudsters wife and she together with the acountant Beattie declared for two years that there were no untoward financial occurances to report. prior to signing the accounts off as correctly administered
What the 2 officers identified did not pick up was the misappropriation of £600,000 that had been donated by the public which was ringfenced, to be held in trust within the accounts only to be made available to fund a second independence referendum.
It was much later, after the accounts were made available to Party members that an alert member noticed the £600,000 was missing. There followed a hulabaloo lasting many months and the proferring of assurances from Party HQ that the money was not missing, each time there was a wee bit change in emphasis from the one previous and each time members dismissed the ever nonsensical explanations.
Many months later and only Peter Murrell has been charged with embezzlement. He attended a closed court and was formally charged. But details have been withheld from the public. So we who have had our money stolen are excluded from all proceedings. But we do know that Sturgeon and Beattie were released from police investigations without charge. A public announcement stated they were no longer persons of interest. And we still do not know where the £600,000 is.
It appears all is lost and the missing money wil never be found but it might be possible to hold Stuureon and Beattie to account and recover the money from them since they failed to exercise due diligence as the officrs responsible for reviewing the accounts before signing them off as correct. Might rquire a civil lawsuit. But I am not a lawyer so others might comment on that. But my question for the police is. After an investigation lasting years you still are unable to return my money to me why?
GROK report here
https://twitter.com/i/grok/share/vd1sAWlctwTaOJBoIPrMAXPcN
caltonjock 