A £300million deal to sell the club to New England Sports Ventures (NESV) looked set to proceed after Mr Justice Floyd ruled current owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks did not have the power to reconstitute the board and block its preferred deal going ahead. However, events took a dramatic turn when a Texas District Court granted a temporary restraining order to prevent the deal going ahead, an order which the boards of Kop Football and Kop Holdings accept they must fight to have removed. NESV's John W Henry held a lengthy meeting with Liverpool's board on Wednesday evening, giving a thumbs-up to reporters when asked how it felt to be close to owning Liverpool. However, that was before news of the restraining order broke and Henry made no comment when he left the meeting at 1am, with Liverpool having released a statement almost two hours earlier on the club website. The statement read: "Following the successful conclusion of High Court proceedings today, the boards of directors of Kop Football and Kop Holdings met tonight and resolved to complete the sale of Liverpool FC to New England Sports Ventures. "Regrettably, Thomas Hicks and George Gillett have tonight obtained a Temporary Restraining Order from a Texas District Court against the independent directors, Royal Bank of Scotland PLC and NESV to prevent the transaction being completed. "The independent directors consider the restraining order to be unwarranted and damaging and will move as swiftly as possible to seek to have it removed." The news of the restraining order came in an incendiary statement posted on the website of American law firm Fish & Richardson, which also claimed damages of $1.6billion were being sought by Hicks and Gillett. The lawsuit announced by Fish & Richardson is against Liverpool creditors Royal Bank of Scotland, chairman Martin Broughton, board member Ian Ayre, financial director Philip Nash and NESV and claims Hicks and Gillett are victims of an "epic swindle" and "grand conspiracy". The NESV agreement, worth £300million, is characterised as a "a scheme to sell LFC to NESV at a price they know to be hundreds of millions of dollars below true market value". The post went on to claim that RBS would only sign off a deal if it did not provide financial benefits for the outgoing owners. "The director defendants were acting merely as pawns of RBS, wholly abdicating the fiduciary responsibilities that they owed in the sale," it said. "RBS has been complicit in this scheme with the director defendants. For example, in letters from RBS to potential investors obtained just within the past few days, RBS has informed investors that it will approve of a deal only if there is 'no economic return to equity' for Messrs. Hicks and Gillett. "In furtherance of this grand conspiracy, on information and belief, RBS has improperly used its influence as the club's creditor and as a worldwide banking leader to prevent any transaction that would permit Messrs. Hicks and Gillett to recover any of their initial investment in the club, much less share in the substantial appreciation in the value of Liverpool FC that their investments have created." In addition to those claims, there are several allusions to bidders and investors who were interested in buying into Liverpool who had previously not been made public. NESV's offer, as well as Peter Lim's rival deal worth £320million, are in the public domain but the legal notice claims another party made contact through a third party on October 4 and was offering up to £400million. In addition, it is now claimed Broughton twice refused to respond to yet another offer worth between £350million and £400million.
