Crispin Odey took the UK Financial Conduct Authority to the Upper Tribunal in London, hoping to overturn a lifetime prohibition on working in the City. The tribunal issued a decision dismissing his appeal and, on Monday, reduced the total fine to £1.5 million, about $2 million. The FCA had imposed the ban last year and fined him for a lack of integrity, stating that, after his late-2021 attempt to obstruct a disciplinary hearing, they found him unsuitable to hold a role in financial services. A lawyer for Odey did not provide a comment right away when asked.
The March tribunal shone a spotlight on the turmoil inside Odey Asset Management in 2021 and 2022. While under FCA investigation, Odey dismissed two consecutive executive committees within four months, drawing accusations of "reckless disregard" for governance. An internal review by an external law firm logged at least 46 allegations over 17 years at OAM, and the regulator acted after multiple reports by the Financial Times.
This year has brought a string of courtroom defeats for Odey. A £79 million libel claim against the FT was settled before trial after he acknowledged it was unlikely to succeed, and in May he settled a personal-injury case filed by several women. "He felt the rules shouldn't apply to him and acted to save his own skin," said Therese Chambers, the FCA's enforcement and market oversight lead.
"During the hearing he reinvented history, painted himself as a victim and displayed no contrition. That arrogant entitlement and the resulting complete disregard for proper governance means Mr. Odey is unfit to work in financial services." Tribunal judges said: "He demonstrated a disregard for standards and requirements that he was reasonably expected to meet based upon the circumstances in question." They added: "He sees nothing wrong with his approach, and indeed he wrongly sees himself as the victim of both OAM's actions and the FCA's. As he put it in his evidence, he considers that he 'was the victim in all this.'"
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