Company and Financial Law

Following speculation this afternoon, Barclays has confirmed that the Serious Fraud Office is investigating payments made to the Qatari sovereign wealth fund in connection with the bank’s 2008 capital raising. Here’s the Barclays RNS statement of this evening in full:

“Barclays confirms that the Serious Fraud Office has commenced an investigation into payments under certain commercial agreements between Barclays and Qatar Holding LLC.”

On 14 August 2012 Barclays first made public the interest of the Financial Services Authority in these payments, as we reported here. It appears that the FSA has now handed the investigation over to the criminal authorities.

In 14 August 2012 we highligthed the disclosure in Barclays interim results that the FSA is investigating “the sufficiency of disclosure in relation to fees payable under certain commercial agreements and whether these may have related to Barclays capital raisings in June and November 2008″.

Bloomberg reports today that:

“U.K. fraud prosecutors may open a criminal probe as soon as this week into payments Barclays Plc (BARC) made in 2008 to Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund as the bank sought to raise money, according to two people familiar with the case.

The Serious Fraud Office, which prosecutes bribery and white collar crime, may inform the London-based bank about its decision on a probe this week, according to the people, who declined to be identified because the discussions are private. Prosecutors are working with the U.K. Financial Services Authority, Britain’s finance regulator, which is conducting a civil investigation into whether the bank adequately disclosed fees it agreed to pay the Qatar Investment Authority”.

See also: Barclays LIBOR travails