The Financial Conduct Authority has placed restrictions on Odey Asset Management, after investors were trapped in some of the company’s funds due to high redemption requests.
The regulator has forbidden OAM from disposing of, withdrawing, transferring, dealing with or diminishing the value of any of its own assets without the prior written consent of the FCA.
The restrictions were voluntary and agreed between OAM and the regulator, according to the FT.
OAM was forced to gate a number of its own funds, as well as those of Brook Asset Management, a subsidiary, after a wave of redemption requests in light of allegations of sexual assault and harrassment voiced by 13 women to the FT against Crispin Odey, the firm’s founder, who denies the allegations.
Partners at the firm told the FT Crispin Odey would leave the firm in the wake of the allegations.
The FCA declined to comment. OAM has been contacted for comment.
A number of banks have since cut ties with OAM, including Goldman Sachs and Exane, as well as the company’s main prime brokers JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley.
MPs have asked the FCA to explain its investigation into OAM, with the Treasury committee chairperson Harriett Baldwin asking FCA chief Nikhil Rathi a number of questions about how it engaged and supervised Odey Asset Management, including details about whether it had received any reports about Odey’s behaviour before they came to light in the press, and how much of its engagement has been driven in particular by the FT’s article.
Odey Asset Management gave the FCA an internal report in 2021 that said Odey had behaved inappropriately with female staff, according to the FT, which prompted the FCA to open an investigation into the firm.
Later that year, when Odey’s executive committee attempted to discipline Odey over further allegations of his behaviour towards women in the firm, Odey fired the committee.
sally.hickey@ft.com
