Ex-barclays boss Varley acquitted in fraud case
Judge rules insufficient evidence to support charge over Qatari investment at height of financial crisis
THE former chief executive of Barclays has been cleared of wrongdoing after a judge ruled there was “insufficient evidence” to support the charge of conspiracy to commit fraud.
The decision was made after a jury was initially discharged in April, although the case remains subject to strict reporting restrictions.
It had been alleged by the Serious Fraud Office that John Varley concealed £322m of payments to the Qataris from other investors in exchange for multi-billion pound cash injections that saved the bank from a government bail-out.
When charges were first brought in 2017, Mr Varley was forced to resign from a number of high-profile board positions with immediate effect, including his role as senior independent director at mining giant Rio Tinto and a senior director at investment management behemoth Blackrock.
The SFO’S case examined Mr Varley’s links to two emergency fundraisings that Barclays secured with Middle Eastern investors, when the banking system was on the brink of collapse during the crisis.
It marked the first trial of a banking boss in the UK for events linked to the crisis. This week, Mr Varley was acquitted on both counts.
It was previously reported that Barclays had raised more than £11bn from the Qataris and other private investors in June and October 2008, which saved it from being bailed out by British taxpayers like rivals Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds.
The Qataris contributed about half the money Barclays raised in 2008 but have not been accused of any wrongdoing.
The SFO charges were against Mr Varley, who ran Barclays until 2011, and its former Middle East head, Roger Jenkins, former wealth boss Tom Kalaris and former European head of financial institutions, Richard Boath. They have all denied the charges, which carry a maximum prison sentence of 10 years.
While the Court of Appeal upheld Justice Jay’s decision to dismiss the charges against Mr Varley, a retrial will now proceed for Mr Boath, Mr Kalaris and Mr Jenkins, to be scheduled at a later date. A spokesman for the SFO said it did not wish to comment further in light of the impending retrial.
The Barclays case has been one of the SFO’S most anticipated, and comes at a time when the agency faces intense
The decision to prosecute the bankers followed a five-year investigation and £15m in Treasury funding
scrutiny after last year’s collapse of its case against former Tesco directors over a £263m accounting scandal.
The acquittal also follows the SFO’S decision to drop charges against Barclays as a corporate defendant. The SFO initially chose to pursue the company despite the Bank of England warning in 2017 that corporate charges could destabilise the bank.
The agency’s decision to prosecute the bankers in 2017 followed a five-year investigation and a £15m funding injection from the Treasury.
Lisa Osofsky, a former FBI prosecutor, took over running the SFO from David Green last summer.
Earlier this year, the SFO abandoned long-running probes into Rolls-royce and Glaxosmithkline but secured the conviction of two former Barclays traders for attempting to rig Euribor at the height of the financial crash.