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The financial guard dog of Great Britain prohibits Crispin Odey from the sector and fine the founder of the hedge funds of 1.8 million pounds sterling for a “lack of integrity” in his conduct after having faced allegations of sexual harassment and assault.
OdeyWho founded Odey Asset Management in 1991, “deliberately sought to frustrate Oam’s disciplinary processes in his conduct to protect her own interests”, the Financial Conduct Authority said Monday.
Odey fell from grace after financial time Detailed allegations sexual harassment and assault against him over a period of many years. He strongly challenged allegations.
The boss of the hedge funds will dispute the decision of the FCA, which is provisional, by referring to it to the Superior Court, a court of superior file which has a status equivalent to the High Court.
The action of the guard dog was not based on the accusations of sexual harassment against Odey themselves, but on his alleged attempts to frustrate the efforts of the hedge fund to respond to complaints concerning his behavior and carry out disciplinary procedures against him.
THE FCA said the head of hedge funds “demonstrated that he was not a suitable and appropriate person to exercise a function related to regulated activities” after having “manifested reckless contempt” for the governance of his business and made the violation of regulatory requirements.
Oam managed $ 13.3 billion in assets at its peak.
Odey did not respond to a request for comments.
The boss of the hedge funds have twice pulled the entire OAM executive committee after planning disciplinary hearings on his behavior, taking advantage of his majority participation in the company to replace them, said the FCA.
After having replaced the leaders for the first time, Odey “has indefinitely postponed” a disciplinary hearing in his conduct, claiming that he was “unable to lead him with impartiality,” said the FCA, adding that his behavior to the fund and the regulator “lacked candor”.
“A culture of silence in which the allegations of misconduct is not effectively treated can put consumers and markets in danger,” said Therese Chambers, joint executive director of the application and market surveillance to the FCA.
“Odey has repeatedly sought to escape and obstruct the efforts to take it into account,” said Chambers. “Its lack of integrity means that it deserves to be prohibited from industry.”
Odey has renounced his right to represent representations to the FCA regulatory decisions committee, which decided to punish his punishment, but rather referred the case directly to the courts, allowing him to retain his legal arguments to the civil trial at the Superior Court.
Odey last week An unexpected visit In the London courtroom, where the former boss of Barclays Jes Staley disputes the decision of the British financial regulator to infiltrate and prohibit it from allegations that he played links with the late sexual offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The FCA generally only takes measures against the persons it does not consider in shape and appropriate due to a non -financial fault once they have been convicted or the results were made on this subject.
In the case of Odey, he took measures on the so-called failures of corporate governance concerning disciplinary procedures, rather than on the underlying allegations themselves.
In a letter to the deputies in 2023 confirming his investigation into Odey, the regulator said that after separate probes on other people, she had “publicly prohibited seven individuals for a non-financial fault of various types, in particular sexual assaults, possession of indecent images of children, the voyeur, serious assaults, non-weighing for railway titles and the use of work email to send appropriate ”.
He said all cases except a criminal conviction or prudence and that he was considering six other prohibitions involving criminal convictions “for a wide range of sexual and other offenses.”
The prohibition proposed by the FCA on Odey comes then that it works to tighten the directives on how financial institutions should fight against misconduct such as intimidation and sexual harassment. Last week, he said that the proposals had been delayed and would now be published by June.
Odey fights an injury request through a civil court filed by five of his alleged victims. He disputes the complaints and also published a defamation complaint against the Financial Times, which the FT defends.
The founder of the hedge funds was not authorized by the FCA to carry out any activity of financial services regulated since 2023, while his company had his authorization suppressed last year.
