WORLDVIEW: First SARS, now UK authorities land SA entrepreneur Dave King with huge liability

By Alec Hogg.Three and a half years ago, serial entrepreneur Dave King finally caved after a lengthy and very expensive fight with the taxman that began when Pravin Gordhan was running SA Revenue Services. A contrite King agreed to a chunky R706m settlement and sought to remake his life away from the spotlight. At the time I suggested his Damascene Conversion appeared inauthentic. It was..___STEADY_PAYWALL___.Glasgow-born King is once again in the news for all the wrong reasons – this time in Scotland. Having lost the initial £20m he invested when his beloved Rangers Football Club was liquidated, King subsequently engineered his way into chairmanship of the high profile club by putting together a voting bloc of shareholders. But according to a UK court finding, he did so illegally, employing tricks similar to those which landed him in such hot water in SA. My Scots-based Biznews colleague Jackie Cameron took a closer look for us at DC King's latest travails..Jackie writes: "British football fans don't appear to be a particularly discerning lot when it comes to the ethics of club bosses. As long as teams keep winning, they aren't overly vexed about what happens behind the scenes. This is highlighted by the re-emergence of controversial SA entrepreneur Dave King, back in Scotland's headlines for breaking the law..After coming perilously close to SA jail time in connection with tax evasion and foreign exchange control contraventions, after settling with SARS in 2013 the founder of Specialised Outsourcing agreed to regularise his tax affairs. That included submitting full tax returns for all family members going back over a decade and as he told BizNews at the time, bringing many offshore assets back into SA. The once combative King was suddenly humble and seemingly delighted to be getting the monkey off his back, even though it meant selling a wine farm and other lifestyle assets..But it's a case of déja vu for King as the authorities have nailed him again, this time in the UK. The Takeover Appeal Board (TAB) has ordered King to cough up more than £10m (R160m) to buy out other shareholders after it ruled he was the leader of the bloc which acted "in concert" to force out high profile Rangers Football Club's former ruling regime..On a Scottish bus earlier this week I found myself wedged between spirited football followers from Glasgow. I asked them what they made of King. Words like 'tax' and 'dodging' and a reference to millions of pounds in tax evasion came to the fore. But for them, more important than the ethical considerations, is whether King will put more money into the club..Football is an expensive game, with star players commanding huge sums. Fans want much more cash ploughed into Rangers so that it can secure, especially, victories against high flying arch rival Celtic. Does the average Rangers supporter care how King manages his business affairs? Apparently not. "Football supporters, aye humans, aren't too wurried about the moral issues," one Scottish football fan explained to me..But having been branded, King's every move is now closely watched. The Glasgow red top, the Daily Record, reported this week that Johannesburg Stock Exchange has fined MICROmega Holdings, R1m, with half suspended. MICROmega, founded by King in 1998, didn't get the approval of shareholders through a special resolution for the purchase of its shares from two counter parties. But MICROmega shareholders, like Rangers fans, don't seem to care. The share price barely blipped on the news of the JSE fine or the TAB order that King is contesting.".Jackie, as ever, is on the money. David Cunningham King is one colourful lad. But he is also very clearly a slow learner. After his expensive battle with SARS, history is about to repeat itself. King is contesting the TAB ruling. Most likely because he simply doesn't have the resources to pay the £10m. Much less the cash required to buy new blood Rangers FC desperately needs.

WORLDVIEW: First SARS, now UK authorities land SA entrepreneur Dave King with huge liability

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