Port Vale to take legal action over ‘nil-paid’ shares?
Radio Stoke’s Matt Sandoz claims that Port Vale’s administrators could be taking legal action against members of the club’s discredited former board over the “nil-paid” shares fiasco.
Sandoz’s tweet said: “Port Vale administrators are looking into the issue of Nil Paid Shares. They’ve spoken to Peter Milller and it’s now with their solicitors.”
When the revelations over the nil-paid shares were published, Chairman of the Supporters Club Pete Williams declared them to be “morally wrong” a view that the vast majority of Vale fans agreed with. Following the revelations, 98% of Vale fans polled said that they wanted the board removed.
Following his resignation from the board Perry Deakin told the Sentinel: “I needed shares in the club to become a director. We all felt at the time, looking back I think wrongly, that it was fine because it allowed Bill to step down and allowed me to step into his place.
“But then the minute they (Blue Sky) defaulted on their payments, we were in a terrible mess. Then we were exposed as having nil-paid shares and it was awful.
“I am a big boy and it was my decision, but I went along with what was presented to me because I felt it was in the best interests of the club.”
Nil-paid what?
The previous board came under sustained criticism after it was revealed that two of their number (Perry Deakin and Peter Miller) had sought election to the board with nil-paid shares (effectively unpaid shares secured on an IOU). The pair repeatedly claimed that they would pay for them but no evidence of money reaching the club’s bank account has been found. The board were subsequently forced to take the club into administration.