The Financial Conduct Authority has confirmed ongoing investigations into both Odey Asset Management and its founder Crispin Odey, which first began in 2021.
In a letter to the Treasury Select Committee published on Wednesday (5th July), FCA chief executive Nikhil Rathi said it is “necessary and appropriate” to continue investigations into Crispin Odey and Odey AM, despite being limited in the information he could share.
The regulator is evaluating whether Crispin Odey is a “fit and proper person” to work in the financial services industry. It is also looking into allegations that he dismissed Odey AM’s Executive Committee for “an improper purpose” in 2021.
Rathi also revealed the FCA had been in contact with the police in regards to the sexual misconduct allegations against Odey.
Odey has denied the misconduct allegations.
Odey Asset Management investigation
On the investigation into Odey AM, Rathi said the hedge fund firm had come under the regulator’s microscope for “possible contraventions of the FCA’s Principles for Business for failing to conduct its affairs with due skill, care and diligence, and failing to take reasonable care to organise and control its affairs responsibly and effectively, with adequate risk management systems and controls”.
While Rathi revealed that both investigations were opened in mid-2021, he said Odey AM had been under “intensive” supervision by the regulator since 2020, with the most recent aim of the supervision being to ensure “adequate investor and consumer protections” as the firm considers its path forward following the removal of Crispin Odey from the firm.
Following the allegations made against the hedge fund’s eponymous founder, many Odey AM strategies have been suspended following a wave of redemption requests.
The firm is currently in talks with boutiques Green Ash Partners and SW Mitchell Capital over the transferral of a number of its strategies.
