The head of Scotland’s National Investment Bank resigned the day the Sunday Mail asked questions over £50million ploughed into a tax haven-linked firm.
Eilidh Mactaggart said she was leaving on January 27, the day we approached the SNIB for comment on revelations the taxpayers’ cash was handed to Gresham House to invest in a forestry fund aimed at “high net-worth” clients seeking “tax-efficient structures”.
Government officials were then informed of the Scottish National Investment Bank (SNIB) chief executive’s decision on January 31 - the day after our story was published.
A spokesperson for the SNIB denied there is any link between the story and Mactaggart’s resignation.
He said: “As previously stated, Eilidh resigned on January 27 for personal reasons.
“There was no link to the Gresham investment or the Bank’s investment strategy. As a matter of policy, we do not comment on individual employee matters.”
Documents show ministers were advised to say they found out about the chief executive’s decision on February 18.
But officials have now admitted SNIB informed them Mactaggart had resigned on January 31 – a day after we told how the bank made a huge investment with Gresham House.
The firm has a management firm in Guernsey – regarded as a tax haven – and chairman Anthony Townsend was named in the Paradise Papers as having previously been a director of an offshore firm in the Isle of Man.
Mactaggart was paid £117,500 – half her annual salary – to leave her post immediately.
Opposition politicians demanded transparency on the SNIB, into which First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has vowed to funnel £2billion of public money.
Labour MSP Monica Lennon said: “It doesn’t seem credible that a story about a tax haven scandal followed by the sudden departure is just a coincidence.
“It’s time the Scottish Government came clean.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said ministers had no input into the resignation, which was a matter for the bank’s board.
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