Ashley's motives for not investing became clear in the following month, namely withholding much needed money from the club in order to undermine the board. At the end of the share issue, on 12 September, it was announced that it had raised just over £3m which still £1m short of its minimum target. As the share issue was undertaken in order to allow Rangers to continue to operate into the new year but the failure to reach the targets meant that further funding was required. A few days later, it came to light that Sandy Easdale had met with several investors that had been introduced to him by Rafat Rizvi, a convicted fraudster wanted by Interpol, which led to calls by the Union of Fans for Easdale to resign. However, in a move to demonstrate his strength, Easdale increased his personal shareholding at Rangers to 5.21% on 24 September. On the same day as the club repaid the £1.5m loan to Sandy Easdale and George Letham. The next day, BNP Paribas bought a 5% stake in Rangers making it the fifth-highest shareholder but less than 24 later it was reported that the transaction was completed on Ashley's behalf, thus increasing his stake to 8.92%. Less than a week later, Ashley's holding company, MASH Holdings, called for an EGM to remove chief executive Wallace. This signaled the start of a crucial stage in the boardroom power struggle at Rangers with King appearing to be outflanked by Ashley, who had secured the support of Sandy Easdale, David Sommers as well as the largest shareholder in Rangers, Laxey Partners.