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<\/p>\nPolice are investigating claims \u00a31.5million went missing from the accounts of the 2014 Yes campaign.<\/p>\n
Thousands of pro-independence campaigners attend a rally on Calton Hill, Edinburgh in 2013.(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Police are investigating claims \u00a31.5million went missing from the accounts of the 2014 Yes campaign \u2013 an organisation with close links to the SNP<\/a>.<\/p>\n Former Nationalist branch secretary David Henry will meet detectives<\/a> this week and hand over a dossier of evidence alleging \u201canomalies\u201d in the books of Yes Scotland Ltd.<\/p>\n The Sunday Mail can reveal the company, which ran the official 2014 Yes Scotland referendum campaign<\/a>, had \u00a31,524,998 in income which it is claimed is unaccounted for.<\/p>\n Despite the Yes campaign being separate from the SNP<\/a>, a party official signed off the books.<\/p>\n Henry, one of the original complainers in 2021 who sparked the Operation Branchform probe into SNP finances<\/a>, said: \u201cI visited Edinburgh\u2019s Gayfield Square Police Station on Thursday to make a complaint of fraud and received an incident number.<\/p>\n \u201cI will meet again with officers next week to give a full statement and provide them with documentary evidence related to Yes Scotland Limited\u2019s accounts and other information that I have \u00aduncovered.\u201d<\/p>\n Former SNP activist David Henry (Image: Contributed)<\/p>\n Police Scotland<\/a> said: \u201cWe have received a complaint and inquiries are ongoing.\u201d<\/p>\n The probe has sparked renewed calls for John Swinney to order an independent inquiry into the SNP\u2019s murky finances.<\/p>\n Henry\u2019s complaint centres on a note in Yes Scotland\u2019s 2014 accounts, published in August 2015, 11 months after the referendum<\/a>. It stated: \u201cDirectors have reviewed the accounting treatment of donations received and these are now recognised as income when received.<\/p>\n \u201cThis has resulted in deferred income as at April 30, 2013 being reduced from \u00a3878,978 to \u00a3nil and has increased other income by \u00a3878,978 from \u00a31,524,998 to \u00a32,403,976.\u201d Henry alleges this \u00a31.5million is unaccounted for, with no \u201cother income\u201d declared again in subsequent accounts.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cThe numbers don\u2019t match up anywhere and there are a host of other anomalies identified in my evidence and major corrections appeared in the 2015 accounts. Nothing adds up. The Yes campaign took in millions in donations but from 2016 dormant accounts have been submitted with zero balances; the money is just gone.<\/p>\n \u201cGiven what we now know about Peter Murrell\u2019s crimes<\/a>, there are strong reasons to be suspicious of the finances of any organisation linked to the SNP.<\/p>\n \u201cPolice Scotland must open a new investigation and fully audit Yes Scotland\u2019s books to find out what happened to the missing \u00a31.5million.\u201d<\/p>\n The complaint is separate to, and pre-dates, claims that the SNP misappropriated \u00a3667,000 of \u201cring-fenced\u201d cash raised for a future referendum<\/a> between 2017 and 2019.<\/p>\n Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie(Image: Ken Jack)<\/p>\n Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said \u201cThese are incredibly serious allegations and it is right that they are considered by the police.<\/p>\n “There are still far too many unanswered questions surrounding Peter Murrell\u2019s fraudulent activities<\/a> and the secrecy of the SNP.\u201d<\/p>\n Rachael Hamilton, Tory deputy, said: \u201cThese claims further underline the need for an investigation into the whole Murrell scandal, which John Swinney continues to resist.\u201d<\/p>\n Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay added: \u201cPeter Murrell\u2019s crimes were enabled by the SNP\u2019s toxic culture of control and aggressive aversion to basic levels of scrutiny.<\/p>\n \u201cBut John Swinney\u2019s \u00addetermination to shut down an \u00adindependent inquiry<\/a> shows they haven\u2019t learned any lessons.\u201d<\/p>\n Yes Scotland Ltd, a limited private company, was set up by Alex Salmond in 2012 to campaign for independence in the referendum.<\/p>\n It was required by electoral law to be a separate legal entity from the SNP.<\/p>\n Insiders have complained the cross-party campaign \u2013 whose advisory board included Greens and \u00adScottish Socialists \u2013 was \u00addominated by the Nationalists.<\/p>\n Yes Scotland campaign was legally separate entity to SNP(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n Murrell\u2019s wife Nicola Sturgeon was given a \u00administerial role overseeing the referendum in Salmond\u2019s Cabinet.<\/p>\n In 2023, Scottish Greens co-leader Ross Greer praised Murrell on social media for getting him a 25 per cent pay rise when he worked as a staffer at Yes Scotland. Greer deleted his tweet this year after Murrell\u2019s conviction for embezzling \u00a3400,000 from the SNP between 2010 and 2022, claiming this was because Murrell \u201cwasn\u2019t the man I thought he was\u201d.<\/p>\n When active Yes Scotland Ltd filed \u00adunaudited, abbreviated small company accounts.<\/p>\n Gordon Millar, a tax and accountancy expert with 40 years\u2019 experience, who has provided written testimony for Henry\u2019s complaint, said: \u201cAlthough legal, the format was an open \u00adinvitation to fraud in any organisation funded largely by small donations.”<\/p>\n The only other account of Yes spending is from the \u00adElectoral Commission, which reported it spent \u00a31.42million on campaigning between May 30 and September 14, 2014.<\/p>\n However, this didn\u2019t include staff, general running costs, or campaigning prior to May 30. There is also no concrete figure for total donations.<\/p>\n Pro-independence lottery winners Colin and Christine Weir alone gave \u00a33.5million to Yes, and sources suggest the campaign overall could have received \u00a35million to \u00a36million. The \u00adElectoral \u00adCommission didn\u2019t require donations of under \u00a3500 to be declared. Tens of thousands of Scots are thought to have donated.<\/p>\n On Companies House, Yes Scotland Ltd\u2019s registered address is 7\/11 Melville Street, Edinburgh \u2013 the address for accountants Johnston Carmichael, who resigned as the SNP\u2019s auditors in 2023 over fraud concerns. However the Sunday Mail understands Yes Scotland Ltd has not been a client of Johnston Carmichael since 2018.<\/p>\n Yes Scotland Ltd\u2019s latest set of dormant accounts were published last August, showing nothing in the bank as of October 2024, while a basic confirmation statement was published in April this year.<\/p>\n![\"Former](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0_JS236396169.jpg\")
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