Former Barclays bosses cleared of fraud charges

Three former top Barclays executives who were accused of funnelling secret fees to Qatar in exchange for funding were cleared of fraud charges on Friday.

Barclays’ ex-investment banking chief, Roger Jenkins, the former head of its wealth division, Thomas Kalaris, and the lender’s ex-European financial institutions head, Richard Boath, were accused by the Serious Fraud Office of devising advisory services agreements that were fraudulent in a plan to disguise payments worth £322m to Qatar.

The defendants said the agreements were genuine and were approved at the top of the bank and signed off by its lawyers.

The acquittal of the three men is a blow to the SFO and puts an end to a seven-and-a-half year investigation that led to the first criminal charges in Britain against senior financiers at a major bank.

The SFO announced the charges in 2017 after a five-year investigation into the details of the rescue package.