LONDON (Reuters) – Roger Jenkins, a former feted Barclays <BARC.L> rainmaker who was acquitted of fraud charges by a London jury two months ago, has now also been cleared of wrongdoing in a separate regulatory investigation, his lawyer said on Tuesday.
Brad Kaufman, co-president of law firm Greenberg Traurig, who has been representing Jenkins since 2012, told Reuters that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) had closed its inquiry into Jenkins’ role in Barclays’ emergency fundraisings from Qatar at the height of the credit crisis.
“The FCA has discontinued their warning notice,” he said. “After all he has been through, and having been exonerated by the SFO (Serious Fraud Office) trial, it would have been unfair to continue with the investigation.”
The FCA called Barclays “reckless” in 2013 for failing to disclose 322 million pounds ($400 million) in advisory payments to Qatari investors, whose capital injections helped the British bank avoid a state bailout in 2008.
But an investigation into the bank and individuals was put on hold after the SFO launched a criminal inquiry in late 2012. In February this year, Jenkins and two other former Barclays executives were unanimously acquitted of fraud charges.
The conclusion of the high-profile trial at London’s Old Bailey meant Jenkins, once dubbed the bank’s “gatekeeper” to the Qatari relationship, Tom Kalaris, who ran the wealth division, and Richard Boath, a onetime financial institutions boss, walked free. The men had all denied wrongdoing.
But the end of the criminal trial also heralded the rekindling of the regulatory investigation, which could have led to executives being fined or banned from financial services.
The FCA has not disclosed which individuals were in its sights. It said on Tuesday it normally did not comment about matters being considered by the Regulatory Decisions Committee, an internal panel of experts that takes enforcement and supervisory decisions on its behalf.
A spokesman said in a statement that “we have strict confidentiality and privacy obligations to comply with.”
Boath has said the FCA ended an investigation into him years ago. Kalaris had not been in the regulator’s sights, his lawyer said.
Barclays, which said in 2013 that the FCA planned to fine it 50 million pounds for its failure to adequately disclose the Qatari advisory payments, said in its annual report published in February that it continued to contest the FCA findings.
(Reporting by Kirstin Ridley; Editing by Sinead Cruise, Alexander Smith and Peter Cooney)
