Britain’s fraud prosecutor could decide as soon as next month whether to charge former Barclays executives over undisclosed payments the bank made to Qatari investors in 2008, three sources familiar with the investigation said.
In a two-year investigation the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has interviewed former chief executives Bob Diamond and John Varley, former finance director Chris Lucas, former tax advisory boss Roger Jenkins and other Barclays staff.
Barclays and a spokesman for Diamond declined to comment. Varley, Lucas and Jenkins could not be reached or did not respond to requests for comment.
The SFO has not specified why it is investigating the payments Barclays made to Qatar Holdings when the Qatari sovereign wealth fund invested in the bank. SFO head David Green would only say: “We are making progress with this case, and we are not going away.”
