A financier who claimed she was called ‘the tart’ by a Barclays executive has accused bank bosses of misleading her, shareholders and the market when negotiating investment deals during the 2008 financial crisis.
Amanda Staveley, who runs private equity firm PCP Capital Partners, is suing the bank for £1.6 billion in damages after Barclays bosses reportedly agreed to provide an unsecured £2 billion loan to Qatari investors.
Her lawyers told a High Court judge the loan was ‘concealed’ from the market, shareholders and from PCP Capital Partners.
Ms Staveley’s firm says it is owed money for the work it did setting up a Middle East investment deal for Barclays during the 2008 crisis.
Barclays says it will ‘vigorously’ defend PCP’s claim, with a spokesman adding bank bosses believe that the claim is ‘misconceived and without merit’.
Lawyers representing Amanda Staveley (pictured) have told a High Court judge that Barclays bosses agreed to provide an unsecured £2 billion loan to Qatari investors during the 2008 financial crisis
Mr Justice Waksman began overseeing a trial at the High Court in London today.
A barrister leading PCP’s legal team outlined the firm’s claim and made allegations against Barclays.
Joe Smouha QC told Mr Justice Waksman that the claims arose out of the recapitalisation of Barclays during the financial crisis in October and November 2008.
Mr Smouha said PCP had introduced a Middle Eastern investor, His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi, to Barclays and ‘subscribed’ to invest £3.25 billion.
He said the only other ‘strategic investors’ were the State of Qatar and its prime minister, Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr Al-Thani.
‘The Qatari Investors [who were already shareholders in Barclays through an investment made in Barclays’ capital raising in June 2008] had agreed to invest a total of £2 billion,’ said Mr Smouha in a written case outline given to the judge.
Barclays says it will ‘vigorously’ defend PCP’s claim, with a spokesman adding bank bosses believe that the claim is ‘misconceived and without merit’ (stock image)
‘However, PCP had been induced to invest on manifestly worse terms than the Qatari Investors.’
He said the Qatari Investors had demanded and, in order to obtain the investment, Barclays had agreed to pay: an additional fee of £280 million; a ‘yet further fee of £66 million’ and to provide ‘an entirely unsecured loan’ of £2 billion.
‘Barclays deliberately misled not only PCP but also its own shareholders and the market in this regard,’ said Mr Smouha.
‘The £280 million fee was disguised as a fee for purported “advisory services”.
‘In any event, the fact of that fee and the very short agreement concerning it was concealed from the market, shareholders and PCP.
‘The £66 million fee was disguised by a false statement in a… market announcement concerning payment for introducing another investor.
‘And, the [£2 billion] loan was likewise concealed from the market, shareholders and PCP.’
Mr Justice Waksman began overseeing a trial at the High Court in London today
Jeffery Onions QC, who is leading Barclays’ legal team, said the underlying proposition that Barclays’ bosses chose to jeopardise their livelihoods and perpetuate a serious fraud was ‘highly improbable’.
‘PCP received a fee of £30 million for its work assisting Abu Dhabi with that investment,’ said Mr Onions in a written case outline given to the judge.
‘It now claims that, but for the alleged deceit, it would instead have secured and completed a deal with Abu Dhabi which would have been worth up to £1.6 billion.’
Mr Onions said: ‘PCP’s case is that senior executives at Barclays of high standing and unblemished reputations chose in 2008 to jeopardise their livelihoods and to perpetrate a serious fraud on the markets by deliberately seeking to sign Barclays, a regulated FTSE 100 company with attendant high levels of internal and external scrutiny, up to sham agreements, under which hundreds of millions of pounds were to be paid, for nothing, over a number of years.
‘As an underlying proposition, that is inherently highly improbable.’
He added: ‘Put bluntly, there was no need on either side to enter into sham agreements, and every reason to make the agreements real.’
The hearing, which is being shown online, is expected to last around two months.
In February, three former Barclays’ bosses were cleared of fraud over a £4 billion investment deal with Qatar at the height of the banking crisis.
The Serious Fraud Office had alleged that lucrative terms given to Qatar were hidden from the market and other investors through bogus advisory service agreements.
Roger Jenkins, Thomas Kalaris, and Richard Boath, who are all in their 60s, were acquitted by jurors following a five-month trial at the Old Bailey.
Last year a court heard that Jenkins referred to Staveley as ‘the tart’ as the pressure mounted to save the bank in autumn 2008.
And sources have told The Daily Mail the slur was just the tip of the iceberg – and that Barclays executives used a string of vulgar, sexual language.
The civil court trial, involving PCP, had been postponed several times to allow the criminal trial to proceed.
Ms Staveley has, in recent months, been involved in brokering a deal which could see a Saudi consortium take control of Premier League football club Newcastle United.
Clash of the titans: Staveley v Jenkins
The £1.6billion court case beginning on Monday will pitch two of the City’s wealthiest and most colourful characters against each other.
Amanda Staveley developed a hard-nosed attitude to money from an early age after deciding to make her fortune when her parents told her that her brother would inherit the family estate in North Yorkshire.
Roger Jenkins pictured with Elle ‘The Body’ Macpherson joined Barclays as a graduate trainee, and went on to earn £39.5m for saving the bank from a Government bailout
She read modern languages at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, before opening a restaurant near Newmarket racecourse.
She caught the eye of the disgraced Prince Andrew in 2001, whose proposal she later rejected.
Roger Jenkins once dated Elle ‘The Body’ Macpherson, but is now married to Brazilian actress Larissa Andrade.
The Scottish-born financier, 64, represented his country in the 400 metres at the 1974 Commonwealth games, while his brother David, a former golden boy of British athletics, was jailed in America for smuggling £54million of steroids across the Mexican border.
Jenkins the banker (pictured right with Macpherson) joined Barclays as a graduate trainee, and went on to earn £39.5million for saving the bank from a Government bailout.