"They had no chance of winning that case," commented Ferguson, saying of Benítez: "He obviously didn't study the Premier League rules. I'm disappointed with some of the stuff he's come out with.He's got a chip on his shoulder about it."
Ferguson said United were investigating whether Liverpool had made an illegal approach for Heinze while he was still contracted to United.
The 29-year-old has joined Real Madrid for around £8m after failing in his attempt to force United to allow him to move to Anfield. United disputed a claim from Heinze that he had a letter signed by the chief executive, David Gill, stating he was allowed to join any club that matched their valuation, and the Premier League concluded that the offer excluded any of United's rivals.
"We're investigating Liverpool's role in this - there's no question about that. We're not letting them off with this. We're looking at the whole role of Liverpool in this," added Ferguson. "We'll see how it comes out. David is working on that at the moment and he'll get to the bottom of it." Liverpool said yesterday they had no comment to make.
Ferguson's attack completes a miserable week for Benítez. It started when the referee Rob Styles was obliged to apologise for his mistake on Sunday in awarding a penalty from which Chelsea equalised in the 1-1 draw at Anfield.
Having missed out on Heinze, Benítez then expressed his disappointment at the Premier League's fixture scheduling and stated that many of his players, who have been away on international duty, did not have sufficient time to prepare for today's 12.45pm match at Sunderland.
But Ferguson clearly was offering no sympathy for Benítez yesterday. "He's going on about Saturday fixtures after international games - he wants to look at our fixture list over the last two or three years and see if he has anything to complain about," said the United manager.
Ferguson insisted he had no axe to grind with Heinze for leaving United, but was unhappy with the player's many representatives. "We're disappointed because he was a great warrior for us. But the role of agents these days - there are different types and some are completely in control of their clients," said Ferguson. "They do their banking, their investing, their holidays, so they become controlled by them and dependent on them. I don't think Gabby was getting the right information from his agents.
"I said hello to Gabby at the tribunal, but obviously it was very difficult because he was with his three barristers, two agents, interpreter and Spanish laywers - I think there were 20 of them. It must have cost a few bob, that. A lot of big egos. I've no problem with Gabby."