Crispin Odey: City watchdog in touch with police as scope of probe revealed

The City watchdog has confirmed it has been in touch with police because it investigates whether or not scandal-hit hedge fund supervisor Crispin Odey is a “fit and proper person” to work in monetary providers.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) chief government Nikhil Rathi mentioned the “fit and proper” check shaped a part of an investigation into Odey Asset Management (OAM) and its founder, which started in 2021.

Mr Rathi used a letter to the Treasury choose committee of MPs, forward of a parliamentary listening to later this month, to verify the FCA was additionally exploring allegations Mr Odey breached integrity guidelines in dismissing the agency’s government committee in 2021 for “an improper purpose”.

The watchdog can also be taking a look at whether or not Mr Odey “failed to comply with the FCA’s conduct rules relating to integrity and acting with due skill, care and diligence”, Mr Rathi confirmed.

The FCA boss mentioned its contact with the police associated to allegations that had been “potentially criminal in nature”.

The letter was made public because the fund supervisor strenuously denies claims, made final month by the Financial Times and Tortoise Media, of historic sexual misconduct.

They reported a string of complaints by 13 ladies courting again over 25 years.

Mr Odey, who was cleared in 2021 of sexually assaulting a feminine banker in 1998, was ousted from his roles at OAM after the media allegations got here to mild.

The hedge fund has since been battling to include the fallout from the disaster, which included a deposit flight by prospects, asset gross sales and various its funds being offloaded to rivals in a bid to shore up the enterprise.

Mr Rathi mentioned within the letter that the FCA’s supervision of OAM had been “intensive”.

Its “fit and proper” check is centred on points such an individual’s skill to do a job truthfully and to guard shoppers, though it additionally considers components akin to previous legal and civil proceedings.

Individuals may be banned from working within the monetary providers trade if the FCA considers they don’t seem to be “fit and proper”.