Odey: My enormous relief at being cleared
HEDGE fund tycoon Crispin Odey said he felt ‘enormous relief’ after being cleared of an indecent assault charge.
The Brexiteer tycoon told The Mail on Sunday last night that he was breathing a sigh of relief that was ‘more than huge’.
Odey, 62, was found not guilty on Thursday of an alleged assault against a junior female banker near his home in Chelsea in 1998.
He was alleged to have lunged at the woman, then in her mid-20s, after inviting her to his house.
But District Judge Nicholas Rimmer, sitting at Westminster magistrates’ court, said there were inconsistencies in the complainant’s account and ruled in Odey’s favour. Odey told the MOS after the ruling: ‘All you feel is enormous relief. My skillsets are in finance and investment, that’s what I love talking about and doing and it’s just horrible when the conversation ends up about something that supposedly happened 23 years ago. It’s so distracting and horrible.’
The allegations had reportedly put a strain on his 30-year marriage to Nichola Pease, chair of Jupiter Asset Management and a descendant of the founders of Barclays.
He stepped back in November from running Odey Asset Management, which he founded in 1991, to focus on managing money. Odey said his main Odey European Fund is up 52 per cent since the start of the year, while his new inflation-focused fund is up 67 per cent.
The Harrow-educated fund manager made millions by betting against sterling after the EU referendum in 2016. He has donated £1.7million to the Conservative Party over the past ten years.