Insider claims Peter Murrell had 'control' of Yes Scotland and oversaw donations
The campaign has argued there is a “desperate attempt to link Mr Murrell’s criminal conduct in the SNP to that of Yes Scotland”.
A Yes Scotland insider has claimed Peter Murrell controlled high-value donations handed over to the pro-independence campaign - raising questions over the SNP’s assertion that the party did not co-ordinate its finances.
The SNP’s political opponents have warned that the claims “paint a deeply troubling picture of how the Yes campaign was really run” after Murrell, who admitted embezzling more than £400,000 from the SNP, was linked to overseeing the finances of the official campaign group in favour of independence.
Ian Dommett, Yes Scotland’s marketing director until January 2014, has claimed Murrell, who was jailed for five years and three months for embezzling SNP funds, controlled high-value donations intended for Yes.
Mr Dommett told the Sunday Mail newspaper that during his time with Yes Scotland, nothing was carried out “that wasn’t under Murrell’s control”.
Despite the SNP previously insisting the party and Yes Scotland were separate entities, Mr Dommett has claimed that the SNP "tightly controlled” the organisation from the outset, particularly through Murrell.
He further claimed that Murrell oversaw high value donations to Yes Scotland, including those from lottery winners, Colin and Christine Weir.
Mr Dommett said that the SNP “effectively ran” the cross-party Yes campaign.
He has argued that despite Yes Scotland having £2.4m of income in April 2013, including a large proportion from donations, the money did not “trickle down” and was a “real struggle” to fund the campaign.
Mr Dommett worked closely with the SNP under Alex Salmond from 2004, before joining the official Yes campaign in 2012 where he worked in the lead-up to the independence referendum in 2014.
Reports suggest that Police Scotland are allegedly investigating claims that £1.5m from the Yes Scotland Ltd books is unaccounted for - the company behind the campaign.
Mr Dommett said: “Between 2004 and 2012, Murrell was my best client.
“But from when I started working in Yes Scotland, he just was not willing for us to do anything that wasn’t under his control.
“I believed we should share research results with the Greens, with the Socialists but he didn’t want to... We fell out badly over that.
“By 2014, it was clear the SNP did not want this campaign to be run by anyone not in the SNP.”
Scottish Conservative deputy leader, Rachael Hamilton, said: "These allegations paint a deeply troubling picture of how the Yes campaign was really run. For years, the SNP insisted Yes Scotland was a separate organisation, but this account suggests something very different.
"John Swinney and Nicola Sturgeon were at the heart of the SNP leadership throughout this period. They owe the public answers, not more stonewalling, and they should finally back a full independent inquiry."
A spokesperson for Yes Scotland said: “All of the income received by Yes Scotland is fully accounted for and it is grossly defamatory to say otherwise.
“There now appears to be a desperate attempt to link Mr Murrell’s criminal conduct in the SNP to that of Yes Scotland. To make it perfectly clear, Mr Murrell never at any time had access to Yes Scotland’s accounts.
“Mr Dommett was never involved in the financial side of the organisation. No donations to Yes Scotland were held separately, nor were the donations or accounts ever controlled by the SNP.
“For sake of transparency, it is important to note that the Weirs donated directly £3.5million to Yes, starting in August 2012, and certainly not via the SNP.”
An SNP spokesperson said: “Yes Scotland Ltd is and was an entirely separate entity to the SNP. Throughout the referendum campaign Yes Scotland was run by an independent board of directors.
“As everyone knows, the SNP was a major partner in Yes Scotland and campaigned with Yes Scotland during the referendum.”
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