Crispin Odey, the founder of Odey Asset Management, is appealing against a roughly 1.8-billion-pound fine and industry ban. The appeal began on Tuesday and will test Britain’s efforts to tackle workplace misconduct within financial firms. Odey Asset Management was founded in 1991 and rose to prominence after the 2008 financial crisis by short-selling bank shares.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) imposed the fine and ban last year, citing a lack of integrity regarding how Odey’s now-defunct firm investigated complaints of inappropriate behaviour. The watchdog stated that Odey deliberately frustrated his own fund’s disciplinary process. This involved dismissing the members of its executive committee twice, in 2021 and 2022, after accusations of sexual harassment at OAM.
Odey’s legal team will argue at London’s Upper Tribunal that his actions were intended to protect OAM, which they claim “faced an existential crisis”. Documents filed by his lawyers indicate he believed his actions were necessary for the firm’s survival. The proposed industry ban centres on Odey’s response to OAM’s internal probe and how he “made his contempt for the whole process clear”, according to the FCA’s lawyers.
The FCA’s decision last year noted that OAM’s executive committee had previously issued Odey a final written warning for improper conduct toward female employees, instructing him to act more professionally. The regulator found this warning was breached in 2021 and 2022, following complaints from a new staff member and a recruitment agency that supplied temporary staff.
