Prosecutors for the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) say attempts by former Barclays bank bosses to show advisory services provided by Qatar were merely a “smoke-screen” to try to “legitimise” fraudulent payments to the Gulf state in 2008. The SFO alleges the trio put together two “advisory services agreements” (ASAs) to hide the payments. The fees effectively meant Qatar was able to purchase Barclays shares at a heavily discounted price of 130p per share, on average. Brown told the jury, during the second day of proceedings, that the former executives would defend the arrangement by saying it was signed off by Barclays’ lawyers. However, the SFO alleges the banking bosses also misled their lawyers about the true intent of the payments.

Source: The Guardian October 09, 2019 16:54 UTC