UK's FCA fines and bans Crispin Odey for lack of integrity

By Sarah Young, Nell Mackenzie

LONDON, March 17 (Reuters) - Britain's Financial Conduct Authority said on Monday it has fined Crispin Odey, founder of the now defunct hedge fund Odey Asset Management, 1.8 million pounds ($2.3 million), and banned him from the financial services industry for a lack of integrity.

Odey intends to challenge the decision and has referred the FCA's ruling to a higher court, the Upper Tribunal, where both parties will present their cases, making the FCA's decision provisional for now, the regulator said in a statement.

Odey, who founded OAM in 1991, was eventually ousted from the fund in 2023 after the Financial Times and Tortoise Media jointly reported allegations of sexual misconduct against him from 13 women. More women have since stepped forward.

The FCA statement describes how before those reports surfaced, the hedge fund attempted to carry out its own internal investigation of its founder's conduct.

Odey was separately acquitted after a three-day London trial in March 2021 of indecently assaulting a young, female banker in 1998.

Months after that trial, Odey fired his own executive committee when they put him at the centre of an internal investigation and gave him final warnings about "inappropriate behaviour," the FCA statement showed.

When these executives scheduled a disciplinary hearing to consider whether he had breached the final written warning, Odey used his position as majority shareholder to remove the executive committee and replace them with himself.

The internal disciplinary hearing was then indefinitely postponed as Odey said he would be unable to conduct it himself with impartiality, the FCA statement said.

The hedge fund's hearing eventually proceeded on November 29, 2022, a year later, and the following year Odey was ejected from the fund, the FCA said.

"Mr Odey repeatedly sought to evade and obstruct efforts to hold him to account. His lack of integrity means he deserves to be banned from the industry," FCA join executive director Therese Chambers said.

Odey and his lawyer did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The FCA has increased its focus on non-financial misconduct, which it has said is relevant when considering whether people are "fit and proper" to work in finance.

($1 = 0.7723 pounds)