Barclays trial: Millions in bonuses for crisis-era Qatari funding deal
The UK’s Serious Fraud Office
alleges that former Barclays CEO John Varley and other executives misled investors in raising funds during the financial crisis.
Barclays executives
spent frantic hours negotiating with Qatari investors, which led to millions in hidden fees being funnelled to the investors via financial instruments, a London court heard on Tuesday.
The need to get Qatari investors on board
was urgent for the executives, who feared a government bailout which would have been a “constraint,” SFO prosecutors said.
One Barclays executive, Roger Jenkins, was got a £25 million bonus for his role in securing the Qatari funding, a draft agreement said.
Business Insider
https://www.businessinsider.com/barclays-trial-millions-in-bonuses-for-qatari-funding-deal-2019-1
Top Barclays executives ‘hid £280m payment’, court hears
Prosecutors
said the executives created a bogus agreement for advisory services so they could pay Qatari investors extra fees for investing.
The defendants deny charges of fraud.
The Serious Fraud Office
told the court that in the 2008 banking crisis Barclays needed to raise billions of pounds from private investors.
But the Qataris drove a hard bargain, demanding commissions from the bank more than twice as high as other investors were getting in exchange for investing £2.05bn at the height of the financial crisis.
BBC News