By Charlie Conchie
A group of MPs has called for the Financial Conduct Authority to reveal the depths of its previous probes into Crispin Odey today as the scandal surrounding the financier deepens this week.
Odey was accused of sexual misconduct by 13 women last week as part of an investigation by the Financial Times. He denies the allegations.
The chief of the influential Treasury Select Committee of MPs, Harriet Baldwin, has now written to FCA chief Nikhil Rathi demanding details of the “nature and intensity” of its “supervision and engagement with Odey Asset Management [OAM] over the last five years”.
“The FT paints a deeply negative picture of one powerful individual’s conduct regarding those two Committee priorities and is potentially damaging to the reputation of the entire sector,” Baldwin wrote to Rathi.
The FCA was reported to have been privately investigating the firm prior to the FT’s report and was reportedly given a report of Odey’s conduct in early 2021 after the firm took disciplinary action against him.
Baldwin asked the regulator to confirm whether it had received that information and what action it had taken in response.
The FCA has been set a deadline of Wednesday 5 July to respond to the questions from Baldwin. Top executives at the FCA are also set to be grilled by the Treasury Committee in person next month over their role in investigating OAM.
A spokesperson for the FCA said: “We understand the Committee’s interest in this and we’ll of course reply shortly.”
Bosses at OAM ousted the firm’s founder this week after a slew of top banks and institutions moved to sever ties with the firm.
Odey was forced to shutter one of its funds and restrict the withdrawal of cash from another yesterday in a bid to control the crisis.
