David Cunningham King (born 3 August 1955)[1] is a Scottish-born, South African based former chairman of Rangers Football Club.
[5][6] On 14 June 2002 BBC News referred to South African reports that King faced eleven counts of tax related offences when he appeared at the Regional Court in Randburg, near Johannesburg.
[7][8] King's tax problems began after one of his trust owned property companies bought an Irma Stern painting at an auction for R1.7 million in 2000.
[9][10] After a decade of legal process, including an initially agreed, but subsequently vetoed, settlement,[11] King and his family trust structures eventually reached a joint settlement with the tax authority which incorporated an agreement by King to plead guilty to routine statutory charges and agreeing to pay a fine for these statutory offences.
[18] On 7 June 2012 King called for the rejection of the proposed Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) to bring Rangers out of administration.
[19] The proposal was subsequently turned down by the club's largest creditor, HM Revenue and Customs, and Rangers FC entered Liquidation.
[citation needed] King is close friends with South African golfer Gary Player and caddied for him at his last ten Masters in Augusta.
They had a bitter legal dispute about a $1 million transaction that was settled in 2013 and King remains a close confidant and advisor to Player.