Ex-Barclays chief John Varley ‘took responsibility on Qatar cash’

Former Barclays chief executive John Varley personally signed a letter “accepting responsibility” for misleading public statements over £4 billion of investment from Qatar, a court heard on Thursday.

Top executives at the banking giant are accused of agreeing to pay secret fees to the Middle Eastern state in exchange for funds which would keep the business afloat. The alleged payments were made during the 2008 financial crisis, when Barclays was under “extreme pressure” to find investment to avoid a government bailout.

Prosecutor Ed Brown QC told Southwark crown court Varley had signed a letter “accepting responsibility” for the bank’s public prospectuses, which he alleged failed to declare £322 million paid to the Qataris. “There are no material facts or considerations omitted from the prospectus which to my knowledge would make any statement in the prospectus misleading,” the letter said.

“I accept responsibility for the information contained in the prospectus and confirm that to the best of my knowledge, having taken all reasonable care to ensure that such is the case, the information contained in it is in accordance with the facts and does not omit anything likely to affect the import of such information.” Brown told jurors the prospectus “contained false representations, that is, untrue or misleading statements” to conceal the amount of money paid to Qatar.

Jurors have heard some of the money paid by Barclays went to a company controlled by Qatar prime minister Sheikh Hamed. Brown said Barclays claimed money to Sheikh Hamed was for “advisory services”, but he “would and could not on any footing be providing advisory services, as the conspirators recognised at the time. It would be inappropriate for the prime minister of Qatar to be doing so.”

Varley and Barclays executives Roger Jenkins, Thomas Kalaris and Richard Boath are accused of fraud over the alleged secret payments. They all deny conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation. Varley and Jenkins deny a second charge of fraud.

The proceedings came as Barclays current chief executive Jes Staley said the firm was putting past scandals behind it but added: “We’ve got to regain credibility, I have no doubt about that.” Staley also warned of a new potential seize-up in credit markets, saying it was “more than likely” there will be another financial crisis due to the rise of high risk “covenant-lite” loans to business.

The trial continues.