SFO ordered to argue gagging case in public

LONDON, Nov 23 (IFR) - The Serious Fraud Office has been ordered by a UK judge to argue in public its attempt to keep a case involving British bank Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) and one of its former investment bankers private.

Richard Boath, one of a number of former top Barclays executives questioned by the SFO in a criminal investigation over the bank's fundraising from Gulf investors during the financial crisis, is suing Barclays in a pay dispute, and for unfair dismissal for whistle blowing.

The SFO interviewed Boath in 2014 and has applied to the East London Employment Tribunal to keep the hearing or details of much of the hearing private, saying it could prejudice any future charges it could bring against people involved in the fundraising.

That application has bogged down the start of the hearing. On the first two days, the judge and a host of lawyers have been discussing whether even the discussion about keeping the hearing private should be heard in private or public.

Judge Prichard ruled late on Tuesday that the discussion about privacy should be in public. A decision on whether the hearing itself is in public or private should be made later this week.

Thomson Reuters (Dusseldorf: TOC.DU - news) , the owner of IFR, is part of a media consortium arguing for the hearing to be held in public.

The case could shed light on details around Barclays' controversial fundraising with Middle East investors in 2008, which enabled it to avoid taking a state bailout but has since been criticised as too generous to the investors and not fully transparent.

The case, which began on Monday, is scheduled to last for 10 days.

The SFO has said it expects to decide whether to charge Barclays and former executives early next year in its criminal inquiry into the bank's financial arrangements with Qatar, which included a loan by Barclays to the Gulf state.

The investigation centres on commercial agreements between Barclays and Qatari investors as part of a capital raising to raise a total of about £12bn at the height of the financial crisis in 2008.

Barclays said in 2013 British authorities were investigating the bank and four current and former senior employees over the fundraising.

Sources familiar with the matter have said Boath, who was co-head of global finance in EMEA at the time of the capital raising, has been interviewed, as have former chief executives Bob Diamond and John Varley, former finance director Chris Lucas and former tax advisory boss Roger Jenkins.

Boath, most recently Barclays' chairman of the financial institutions group, left the bank in March. (Reporting by Steve Slater and Alex Chambers; editing by Matthew Davies)