![\"Analysis\"](\"https:\/\/static.files.bbci.co.uk\/core\/website\/assets\/static\/news\/incident-types\/light-mode\/analysis.77b314ef10.svg\")
What will happen at the proceeds of crime hearing?published at 11:24 BST<\/p>\nWhat will happen at the proceeds of crime hearing?published at 11:24 BST<\/p>\n
11:24 BST<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/142643b2-839c-4ebf-9e10-d1733be0a6b1.png.webp.webp\")
David Henderson
Scotland news correspondent, at the High Court in Edinburgh<\/p>\n
Peter
\nMurrell is heading back to jail but he faces further punishment in the coming months.<\/p>\n
And for someone who clearly enjoyed money and the trappings it brought, this
\ncould be very painful for him.<\/p>\n
\nHe embezzled over \u00a3400,000 from the SNP, while he ran its political machine. <\/p>\n
So he has profited from this crime. Now he will have to hand over the money to
\nthe authorities.<\/p>\n
Murrell’s proceeds of crime hearing is set to take place on 14 September.<\/p>\n
The judge has sweeping powers to confiscate all the funds
\nthat Murrell took. This would mean the money goes to the state, to reflect
\nthe multi-million pound cost to taxpayers of Operation Branchform.<\/p>\n
Or Lord Young could choose to make a compensation order –
\nwhich would return all the embezzled funds to the victim in this case – the
\nSNP. That’s what first minister John Swinney is seeking. <\/p>\n
If there’s a confiscation order, the SNP would have to
\nsue Murrell for what he owes them. <\/p>\n
The courts have already frozen more than \u00a3600,000 which
\nbelongs to Murrell – two private pension funds and his half share of the family
\nhome he shared with Nicola Sturgeon. <\/p>\n
So there’s plenty of funds to sieze. <\/p>\n
Whatever happens, Murrell looks set to lose most – if not all – of his wealth, along with his
\nliberty. <\/p>\n
And when he emerges from prison in a few years time,
\nhe’ll have little or no spare money to spend in retirement. <\/p>\n
It’s a grim punishment – like something from a work of
\nliterature. The greedy man who ends up with next to nothing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What will happen at the proceeds of crime hearing?published at 11:24 BST 11:24 BST David HendersonScotland news correspondent,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-653997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}