Barclays PLC and four former executives were charged with conspiracy to commit fraud regarding the bank’s 2008 capital raising from Qatar, following a five-year investigation into one of the most turbulent periods in financial history.
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) yesterday said that former CEO John Varley, former chairman of investment banking for the Middle East Roger Jenkins, former wealth chief Thomas Kalaris and former European head of the bank’s financial institutions group Richard Boath face charges along with Barclays.
The four men are the most senior UK banking executives charged since the financial crisis, which forced many lenders to seek government bailouts and sparked a global recession.
Photo: Reuters
Barclays avoided a state rescue with a £12 billion (US$15 billion) fundraising from Qatari investors, but now faces charges relating to fees paid as part of the deal and a US$3 billion loan facility made available to Qatar.
The case is one of a number of lingering investigations over the bank’s behavior dating back nearly a decade.
Since the financial crisis, the London-based bank has faced probes ranging from the rigging of key benchmark rates to more recent scandals related to how executives dealt with whistle-blowers.
Barclays said it is “considering its position” in relation to the allegations.
It added that one of its main subsidiaries might also face additional charges in the case.
Varley and Jenkins face three counts of conspiracy to commit fraud and unlawful financial assistance.
Boath and Kalaris each face one fraud count.
A London court hearing is scheduled for July 3.
A lawyer for 61-year-old Jenkins said his client would “vigorously defend against these charges.”
“As one might expect in the challenging circumstances of 2008, Mr Jenkins sought and received both internal and external legal advice on each and every subject mentioned in the accusations leveled by the SFO today,” said Brad Kaufman, Jenkins’ US based lawyer at Greenberg Traurig.
Lawyers for the other three defendants were not immediately available to comment.
Varle was appointed Barclays CEO in 2004 after starting his career at the bank in the 1980s.
He presided over the lender during the 2008 financial crisis before handing the reins to Bob Diamond in 2011.
Jenkins, who now lives in Malibu, California, worked most of his career at the lender in roles including running a structured capital markets business that developed tax arbitrage strategies for clients.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last