A Qatari sovereign wealth fund has become embroiled in an allegation of secret payments made by Barclays Bank executives at the height of the 2008 financial crisis.
The case, currently being heard in the Southwark Crown Court in the UK, centres on an allegation that former Barclays chief executive John Varley and three fellow executives secretly funnelled more than £320 million ($418 million) in fees to Qatari investors in exchange for more than £4 billion in investment.
It is alleged, by the UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO), that Varley and his co-conspirators were attempting to raise emergency funds from investors in Qatar, China, Singapore and Abu Dhabi in order to keep the bank afloat and avoid a UK taxpayer bailout.
The secret fees were paid to Qatar Holding, a sovereign wealth fund, via a side deal or advisory service agreement that the SFO claims was a “dishonest mechanism” to disguise the fact that Barclays had agreed to meet the Qatari investors’ demands for double the commission paid to the other investors.
The Qatari investors, which included the prime minister at the time Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani, were also paid another £66 million, which was disclosed, in return for an introduction to Abu Dhabi investors.
“It is the hiding of these additional commission fees which lies at the heart of this case and the conspiracies alleged against the defendants, disguising and hiding extra fees to the tune, ultimately, of a total of nearly a third of a billion pounds,” said Edward Browne QC for the SFO. The trial continues.
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