TRIBUNAL UPHOLDS CRISPIN ODEY'S FINANCIAL SERVICES BAN

The Upper Tribunal has upheld the Financial Conduct Authority's ban on Crispin Odey working in financial services, ruling that he lacked integrity. Odey founded and held majority ownership of Odey Asset Management. According to the FCA, he faced an internal disciplinary process over breaching a final written warning linked to repeated inappropriate behaviour towards female employees. The regulator said Odey responded by bullying and threatening the firm's executive directors, then dismissed its executive committee twice when it would not yield to his pressure. The FCA said this brought the disciplinary process to a halt and that Odey's aim throughout was self-preservation.

The FCA brought five allegations against Odey, all of which the Tribunal upheld, agreeing each showed a lack of integrity. Beyond the removal of the executive committees, the Tribunal also upheld findings that Odey's dealings with the firm, its clients, its investors and the FCA itself lacked candour, including false statements to and threatening conduct towards FCA staff. The Tribunal described his justifications for removing the committees as no more than a smokescreen, saying he believed he should be free to treat female staff according to his own judgement of what was acceptable. It found that his conduct sent a message within the firm that he was untouchable, in a workplace culture where his behaviour towards women had become normalised.

The Tribunal said Odey showed no insight into why his conduct amounted to a lack of integrity during the trial, expressed no contrition and portrayed himself as the victim, and found his evidence lacked credibility in multiple respects. Therese Chambers, the FCA's executive director of enforcement and market oversight, said Odey clearly believed he could act with impunity. The ruling confirms the lifetime ban on Odey managing money, ending his attempt to overturn the FCA's decision.