The Serious Fraud Office’s decision to bring fraud charges against Barclays and four former executives including former chief executive John Varley raises questions, lawyers say.
The charges concern the bank’s fundraising arrangements with Qatari sovereign wealth funds during the 2008 financial crisis.
Simon Hart, partner, of RPC’s banking litigation team comments: ‘The SFO’s case is that Barclays and the individuals charged falsely represented the true position with regard to the terms of the Qataris involvement in the fund raisings. Shareholders who subscribed for shares and suffered losses as a result of any deliberately misleading information or omissions deserve redress.’
Raj Chada, solicitor at Hodge Jones & Allen, said: ‘The irony here is that this prosecution has nothing to do with behaviour that caused the crash but related instead to the terms of a bail out. Even more strange is that Barclays have found themselves in this mess as they eschewed a UK government bailout and went to Qatar instead. No doubt questions will be asked about whether a deferred prosecution agreement could have been considered in this case rather than starting a prosecution.’
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