The Serious Fraud office has launched an investigation into Barclays 2008 fundraising, amid concerns at some of the fees paid by the bank in connection with the deal, reports The Telegraph.
In a statement this afternoon, the bank confirmed it was being investigated by the SFO in relation to “payments under certain commercial agreements between Barclays and Qatar Holdings LLC”.
The SFO investigation into Barclays ups the pressure on the bank after the fraud watchdog confirmed last month that it considered there were ground to prosecute banks and bankers over the alleged manipulation or Libor.
Last month, Barclays revealed that four of its current and former managers, including Chris Lucas, the lender’s finance director, were being investigated by the Financial Services Authority over payments linked to Qatar’s investment of more than £2bn in June 2008.
The FSA is understood to have handed details of its investigation to the SFO, leading the fraud watchdog to launch its own probe into the deal. A source with knowledge of the investigation said the SFO investigation would “be into Barclays as an organisation, not individuals”.
Five months after the Qatar deal, Barclays raised a further £6.8bn from a group of Middle Eastern investors. The bank paid £300m in fees to conclude the deal, including £116m to Qatar Holding, as well as £110m to Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed al Nahan, a member of Abu Dhabi’s royal family.
Former Barclays banker, Roger Jenkins, is understood to be one of the three other executives being investigated by the FSA after playing a key role in putting both deals together. Mr Jenkins was reputedly once Barclays highest paid member of staff and made millions of pounds running the bank’s controversial tax advisory business.
Barclays has had it reputation battered in the last two months after its June decision to settle claims it was involved in attempting to rig the world’s key borrowing rate.
As yet, Barclays remains the only bank to have admitted to having attempted to rig Libor, though several other banks, including Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland, are also the subject of international investigations into the alleged manipulation.
Barclays paid a total of £290m to settle with the US Department of Justice, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the FSA.
The settlement created a public outcry and led to then chief executive Bob Diamond resigning from the bank, along with its chairman, Marcus Agius, and chief operating officer, Jerry del Missier.
Sir David Walker replaced Mr Agius earlier this month as chairman and is currently searching for a new chief executive for the bank.
Mr Diamond, Mr Agius and Mr del Missier have all given evidence to the Treasury Select Committee on the Libor-rigging scandal. However, Mr Diamond received a stern rebuke from the MPs in a report published on August 18 in which his evidence to the Committee was described as falling “well short of the standard that Parliament expects”.
Responding to the criticism, Mr Diamond said he was “disappointed” and strongly disagreed with the MPs findings.