Alex Salmond, once a towering figure in Scottish politics and the nation’s former First Minister, died in October 2024 in North Macedonia at age 69, leaving behind a tangled financial legacy marked by almost £350,000 in debts and assets of barely £2,200. The news, confirmed by official filings and reported across outlets including BBC, Daily Record, and The Scotsman, has startled both supporters and critics alike, prompting fresh scrutiny of the costs and consequences of high-profile legal battles.
Salmond’s sudden death, caused by a heart attack while attending an event abroad, closed the final chapter on a career that had seen dizzying highs and devastating lows. At the time of his passing, he was still embroiled in ongoing legal proceedings against the Scottish Government—a government he once led. Official records now show that the cost of these battles, and the fallout from them, left Salmond’s estate in dire financial straits.
The formal notice of sequestration—Scotland’s equivalent of bankruptcy—revealed debts of £344,347.58 and assets of just £2,282.38. According to BBC, the bankruptcy process was initiated following an application by Salmond’s widow, Moira. Kenny Craig, a chartered accountant with insolvency specialist Begbies Traynor, was appointed trustee to manage the estate’s complex and sensitive winding-up. “This is an unusual and complex appointment, particularly because it involves ongoing legal proceedings by a high-profile individual against the Scottish Government,” said Thomas McKay, managing partner for Begbies Traynor in Scotland, in a statement echoed by several media outlets. “Kenny Craig, supported by our personal insolvency team at Begbies Traynor Group, will of course do all that he can to manage the sequestration as respectfully and sensitively as possible.”
Salmond’s financial ruin was not the result of failed business ventures or personal extravagance alone, but rather the cumulative effect of years of legal strife. After leaving office, he became embroiled in a series of court cases stemming from allegations of sexual misconduct. In 2020, Salmond was acquitted of all charges at the High Court in Edinburgh, a verdict that made headlines across the UK. He also successfully challenged the legality of an SNP Government probe into sexual harassment claims, with the court finding the process “tainted with apparent bias.” This legal victory resulted in a £512,000 payout from the Scottish Government.
Yet, as legal firm Levy and Macrae, acting for the estate, clarified, “not a penny” of that sum went to Salmond himself; instead, the entire payout was absorbed by lawyers’ fees. The cost of defending his reputation in both civil and criminal courts proved overwhelming. According to The Scotsman, the estate’s insolvency was “attributed to legal costs pursuing action against the Scottish Government.”
Despite his acquittal and the court’s rebuke of the government’s handling of complaints, Salmond’s legal woes were far from over. In 2023, he launched a £3 million compensation claim against the Scottish Government, alleging “misfeasance,” or abuse of power, by officials involved in the sexual misconduct investigation. At the time of his death, these proceedings were still ongoing, and the fate of the claim now rests with the trustee. Dr. Alisdair MacPherson, a senior lecturer in commercial law at Aberdeen University, explained to Daily Mail, “The legal claim, although initially taken over by Mrs. Salmond as executor, is now in the hands of the trustee as it would be regarded as an asset of the estate. It’s quite a tricky one for the trustee.”
Indeed, the trustee has several options: pursue the legal claim if it appears to benefit Salmond’s creditors, sell it as an asset, or assign it to a third party willing to bankroll it. The uncertainty surrounding the claim’s value—and whether it can be successfully prosecuted without Salmond as the central witness—adds yet another layer of complexity to the case.
Even with multiple pensions and a brief, if notable, post-politics career as a radio and television host (including work for RT, the Russian state-backed network, via his company Slainte Media Ltd), Salmond’s financial position deteriorated. According to filings, his trading businesses also included Chronicles of Deer Ltd. Reports from Aberdeen Live and The National highlighted that Salmond had been living in a luxury London apartment worth £2.5 million, with a rental cost of £7,000 a week, in the period leading up to his death. He shared the flat with Alba Party chair Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh and the party’s then-general secretary Chris McEleny. Despite the apparent trappings of affluence, the reality was a man “virtually penniless,” as one headline put it, with debts far outstripping any assets.
The appointment of Kenny Craig as trustee followed standard legal procedure in Scotland, where a trustee in sequestration is responsible for assessing the value of all assets, including the rights of action raised against the Scottish Government. As BBC reported, part of the process “will involve considering the value of the legal action the former SNP leader was pursuing.” While some family friends expressed hope the compensation claim would proceed, others acknowledged that “it would be difficult without the former Alba Party leader to testify, and with less in future earnings at stake.”
Salmond’s legacy is now a complicated one. To his supporters, he was a tireless advocate for Scottish independence and a victim of political vendettas. To critics, his fall from grace was a cautionary tale about the perils of power and the personal cost of public life. Either way, the facts are stark: despite decades at the summit of Scottish politics, Alex Salmond died with more liabilities than assets, his estate left to navigate the aftermath of legal battles that defined his final years.
The winding-up of Salmond’s estate is likely to be closely watched—not just by creditors and political allies, but by legal observers across the UK. The outcome of the ongoing legal actions could yet shift the balance of his financial legacy, but for now, the story is one of ambition, controversy, and the extraordinary costs of fighting for vindication in the public eye.
What remains is a sobering reminder: even the most prominent public figures can find themselves undone by the relentless pressures of legal and political strife. For Alex Salmond, the battle for his reputation—and for justice as he saw it—came at a price few could have anticipated.
