Odey Asset Management says FCA ‘will not be taking any action’ after closing probe

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The Financial Conduct Authority has closed its investigation into Odey Asset Management and “will not be taking any action,” said the firm on Tuesday.

Odey Asset Management announced in October it was shutting down, five months after allegations of sexual assault and harassment against its founder, Crispin Odey, plunged one of London’s oldest hedge fund groups into crisis.

A Financial Times investigation in June reported claims from 13 women against Crispin Odey over alleged sexual misconduct carried out over decades. The financier, who strenuously denies the allegations, was ejected from the partnership. Banking partners, including Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan, cut ties and within a week, the firm announced it was breaking up. 

In July, the FCA issued its first public confirmation of its investigation into Odey Asset Management, as well as its founder. 

At the time, Nikhil Rathi, chief executive of the UK financial regulator, wrote in a response to the Treasury select committee that the investigation into Crispin Odey was focused on “allegations that he dismissed OAM’s executive committee for an improper purpose” and whether he was a “fit and proper person” to work in financial services.

The regulator also said it was looking at whether he had “failed to comply” with conduct rules on integrity, due skill, care and diligence.

Crispin Odey fired the hedge fund’s executive committee in 2021, a decision he took after they tried to bring disciplinary proceedings against him for violating a final written warning regarding his conduct towards female employees.

The FT’s previous reporting, which exposed a culture of complicity at the firm, revealed the firm had settled misconduct allegations against its founder as far back as 2004 and had other complaints against him on file from 2005 and 2020. By 2021, the firm was aware of five women who made complaints to human resources about sexual assault or harassment by the financier.

After the FT published its investigation in June, seven further women then came forward with similar allegations of assault or harassment against Crispin Odey, expanding the timeline of his alleged abuse to a period of five decades, from 1985 to 2021.

The financier did not respond to a request for comment regarding the first six of these later complaints. In response to the last, regarding an incident in 2005, he admitted he did “grab” his female employee’s breasts but said it was due to the aftereffects of anaesthetic he had been given at the dentist that day.

Of the 20 women in total who brought allegations against the financier, 13 were employees of the firm. 

The FCA has now closed its investigation into OAM, Rathi wrote to the Treasury committee this month. 

The letter said: “The firm has announced that it is winding down its business and we continue to supervise the firm as it does so. It remains open to us to consider taking enforcement action in the future in relation to matters concerning our investigation into OAM, should new information come to our attention.” 

Rathi told the select committee last week that the investigation into Crispin Odey himself “remains ongoing, given the conduct under investigation relates to him.”

Crispin Odey did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Additional reporting by Laura Noonan in London