City watchdog issues warning notice against Crispin Odey

The City watchdog has told Crispin Odey that it intends to take action against the hedge fund boss for using “improper means to protect his own interests” after he was accused of sexual misconduct.
The Financial Conduct Authority confirmed that it had sent Odey, 65, a warning notice in which it accused him of breaching its conduct rules and of demonstrating “a lack of integrity”.
A warning notice is not the final decision and Odey can still make representations to the FCA’s regulatory decisions committee before it decides whether to take formal action. Odey was approached for comment.
• Crispin Odey rejoins hedge fund after sexual misconduct claims
Odey’s standing as one of Britain’s star fund managers collapsed last year after a number of women spoke to the Financial Times claiming to have been sexually assaulted or harassed by him. The earliest of the allegations dated back to 1985, the FT reported, while the most recent was from 2018. Odey has strenuously disputed the allegations.
Several of the women alleged that they were harassed while working as receptionists or interns at Odey Asset Management, the Mayfair-based firm he founded in 1991.
The hedge fund, which had been managing $4.4 billion of investments before the allegations surfaced, is now in the process of winding down, with its managers and funds having moved to rivals. However, last month it emerged Odey was reappointed as a member of the partnership in September, according to filings at Companies House.
The FCA has been investigating Odey since summer last year. It has written to him explaining that it now considered he breached individual conduct rule 1 of the FCA’s code of conduct, “which required him to act with integrity”.
The regulator said that in December 2021, a few weeks before an internal disciplinary hearing at Odey Asset Management into accusations of “inappropriate behaviour”, Odey used his majority shareholding to remove the existing members of the executive committee and appoint himself as its sole member. Odey then decided to postpone the disciplinary hearing indefinitely, the FCA said.
On January 12, 2022, a week after the original proposed date for the hearing, Odey resigned and appointed new members to Odey Asset Management’s executive committee.
However, a couple of months later, the FCA found, that amid “ongoing disagreement about how to proceed with the disciplinary hearing”, Odey again used his shareholding to remove those new members and reappoint himself as the sole committee’s sole member. He resigned from the committee for the final time in July 2022 after appointing two new members, and a third new member followed in October 2022.
Odey Asset Management’s disciplinary hearing to consider Odey’s conduct was eventually held in November 2022.
The FCA added: “[Odey’s] actions were deliberately designed to frustrate OAM’s ongoing disciplinary process into his conduct, in order to protect his own interests; and showed a reckless disregard for OAM’s governance and caused OAM to breach certain regulatory requirements.”
The watchdog also said that Odey’s behaviour towards Odey Asset Management and the FCA “lacked candour” and stated: “He used improper means to protect his own interests and achieve his objectives; the reasons he gave for his dismissal of ExCo [the hedge fund’s executive committee] and his conduct in his dealings with the FCA also support the finding that he lacks integrity.”