LONDON: The jury in the trial of four former Barclays executives charged with conspiracy to commit fraud have been told that Qatari entities would be implicated if the prosecution’s case proves correct.
The judge overseeing the case, Justice Robert Jay, warned of the potential repercussions of the trial, in which the ex-bank bosses stand accused of making secret payments to Qatar using “sham” covenants, in exchange for
an investment that saved the bank from a government bailout during the fnancial crisis.
In what is considered a rare move so early in a trial, Justice Jay addressed the jury in Southwark Crown Court. It came after prosecutor Ed Brown fnished his opening statements which lasted six days.
Justice Jay said if the Serious Fraud Office’s (SFO) prosecution case proves to be correct, the Qatari entities involved would have to be viewed as also being guilty of dishonesty.
Justice Jay said jurors must not only be convinced that the deals were fake – but also that Qataris were part of the conspiracy. “A sham is an agreement that does not mean what it says,” he said, adding that such an arrangement “requires two parties”.
“The logic of the SFO’s case is that these defendants are dishonest. That means that one or more individuals connected with the Qatari entity must be guilty in the same sense,” he told jurors. “There’s no getting around that.”
No Qatari entities have been charged by the SFO.
The SFO’s case is that the defendants paid Qatar Holding and Shaikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr Al Thani, Qatar’s prime minister at the time, secret fees in exchange for their £4 billion investment across two emergency capital calls. These calls were made at the height of the financial crisis and helped Barclays avoid a UK government bailout by raising a total of £11.2bn.
The SFO alleges that the £322m in secret fees was not properly disclosed to the market or to the emergency fundraisings’ other investors who would have expected the same treatment.
The four ex-Barclays bankers on trial are former chief executive John Varley, wealth management boss Tom Kalaris, head of Middle East and North Africa investment Roger Jenkins and European financial institutions group head Richard Boath.
They are charged with using false advisory service agreements to cover payments made to the Qataris in 2008, in order to effectively pay the investors a higher commissioning fee during a capital raising push that saved the bank from government intervention. All four deny the charges.