So what’s Bob Diamond up to while his Barclays pals face fraud charges?

JUST one day after his former colleagues were charged with fraud, ex-Barclays boss ‘Safari’ Bob Diamond began raising £159m to boost his new firm’s presence in Nigeria.

The financier – who quit as the bank’s chief executive over the Libor rate-rigging scandal in 2012 – has been battling to conquer Africa through his investment vehicle Atlas Mara.

On Tuesday, Diamond’s predecessor at Barclays, along with three other former bosses, were charged with fraud over a £7bn cash call at the height of the financial crisis.

At the time, Diamond was head of Barclays’ US division.

Atlas Mara is now raising extra cash by selling a 35pc stake and issuing a bond to Canadian investment company Fairfax Africa Holdings. Existing investors will also be asked to put their hands in their pockets. Atlas, which owns lenders in seven countries across Africa, will use the cash to boost its holding in Union Bank of Nigeria to 44.5pc.

Diamond’s firm has seen its value plunge almost 80pc since floating on the London stock market in December 2013 amid concerns over its direction. Union is Atlas’s biggest African investment but has been Nigeria’s worst-performing bank stock this year as it struggled to cope with an economic squeeze.

Diamond, 65, has long believed in the continent’s potential for growth and was an enthusiastic backer of Barclays’ presence there, which current boss Jes Staley has been winding up. The former chief executive made a shock return to City life earlier this year when Atlas launched a £15.5m takeover of stockbroker Panmure Gordon, which is nearing completion.