Former Barclays executives cleared of fraud charges

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Three former top Barclays executives have been cleared of fraud charges linked to how the bank raised billions from Qatar in the financial crisis.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) had alleged the bank had given Qatar secret fees that helped it to survive without a UK government bailout in 2008.

Roger Jenkins, Tom Kalaris, and Richard Boath were found not guilty on all charges by the jury in under six hours.

Former Barclays chief executive John Varley was acquitted in June.

The acquittal of the three men is a blow to the SFO, and draws a line under an ambitious, seven-and-a-half year investigation that led to the first criminal charges in Britain against senior financiers at a major bank over credit crisis-era conduct.

The three former senior bankers were accused by the SFO of committing a fraud in the midst of the crisis – charges they have spent more than a year on trial denying.

In 2008, Barclays, like other banks, was running dangerously low on cash.

Roger Jenkins, Tom Kalaris and Richard Boath, all senior executives but not top bosses of Barclays at the time, helped to arrange a £12bn investment by sovereign wealth funds, including the Gulf state of Qatar.

However, the Qataris demanded more than double the fees paid to other investors.

The SFO said the bank decided to disguise their extra fees – £322m in total – by hiding them in what it said were pretend agreements for advisory services.

The defendants said the agreements were genuine and were approved at the top of the bank and signed off by its lawyers.