The Crispin Odey fund manager has been temporarily prohibited from working in financial services and was sentenced to a fine of 1.8 million pounds sterling by the British regulator for a “lack of integrity”.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said that Mr. Odey had tried to “frustrate” a disciplinary process in allegations of sexual harassment against him, and his conduct proved that he was “not an adapted and appropriate person to exercise a function related to regulated activities”.
The allegations of misconduct – strongly refused by Mr. Odey – were reported for the first time in the Financial Times, which posted complaints of 13 women over a period extending over 25 years. Mr. Odey issued defamation procedures against the newspaper.
Mr. Odey, who founded the hedge fund now missing Odey Asset Management (OAM), challenges the decision of the FCA, which is provisional.
In his conclusions, the regulator declared that Mr. Odey “had deliberately sought to frustrate the disciplinary processes of OAM in his conduct to protect his own interests”.
He said Odey used his majority participation in Oam to withdraw existing members from his executive committee, just a few weeks before he appeared for a disciplinary hearing in January 2022.
He then appointed himself a single member of the committee and decided that the disciplinary hearing in his conduct would be indefinitely postponed because he said that he was unable to do so with impartiality.
Therese Chambers, joint executive director of the application and monitoring of the market at the FCA, said: “A culture of silence in which allegations of misconduct are not effectively treated can endanger consumers and markets.
“Mr. Odey has repeatedly sought to escape and obstruct efforts to take it to report. His lack of integrity means that he deserves to be prohibited from industry.”
Since the broader survey of the Financial Times, Oam has struggled to rebuild confidence with investors and a number of large banks have reduced links with the company.
The hedge fund is the dismantling process with activities that will be transferred to other companies.
