Crispin Audi has urged a woman he molested at a hedge fund headquarters to downplay the incident to financial regulators, as they consider whether his regulatory approval as a “fit and proper person” should be retained.
The woman, the 20th woman to report sexual misconduct by the financier to the Financial Times, said she was sexually assaulted by Ode in 2005 while she was an employee at the hedge fund. Dee’s sexual assault. She told Odey Asset Management’s long-term lawyers about the incident during an internal investigation in 2021, the findings of which were also shared with the Financial Conduct Authority.
According to documents seen by the Financial Times, the former employee told lawyers at law firm Simmons & Simmons that there was “quite a culture of sexual harassment” at his company from Odeon.
Odey, who admitted for the first time to sexual misconduct against any of the 20 women who accused him, told the Financial Times: “The girl in question worked for me in 2005 and I did grab her breasts. The matter was reported and investigated…” . I had just returned from a two-hour root canal filling surgery and was on heavy medication. “
The woman’s testimony to Simons raised further questions about what information the law firm included in its report and why the FCA continued to consider Odey “fit and proper.” Her account further suggests a culture of complicity at the company, where Audi’s abuse of women appeared to be widely tolerated.
A previous report by the Financial Times detailed that he allegedly sexually harassed or assaulted 19 other women between 1985 and 2021. Twelve of them are employees of the company. In 2021, Odey was acquitted of criminal indecent assault charges. After an initial report by the Financial Times in June, banks and service providers moved quickly to sever ties with Odey Asset Management, whose partners ousted Odey from the firm he founded in 1991. forcing the company to dissolve.
The new woman’s account is corroborated by documents seen by the Financial Times and an interview with a family member she confided in at the time of the incident.
The woman claimed the financier sexually assaulted her one night while she was working late alone at the firm’s Mayfair offices. She said Odie came up behind her, massaged her shoulders, then moved his hands to her chest and groped her breasts.
“I was shocked and screaming, ‘Crispin, what the hell are you doing?'” she said.
He left, apologized and left, according to the woman. The next day she reported the incident to David Fletcher, then chairman of Odey Asset Management, who later gave her a printed paper record documenting the incident. the woman said, giving Audi a copy.
“I was stunned that they wrote it down,” she said. The note said Odey was under the influence of medication he had taken during a dental visit at the time of the attack.
Documents seen by the Financial Times show that Odea recorded the incident in its human resources files. The woman worked at the company until 2014 and said the financier did not sexually assault or harass her again.
Odey told the Financial Times that he was “genuinely sorry to the girl, who is in her early 30s”, and that the fact she remained at the company showed she “understood this was an aberration”.
“No one tried to hide this incident. It’s not good, but a lot depends on the anesthetic,” he added.
In early 2022, after the FCA launched an investigation into potential misconduct by Odey, the woman received a text message from the fund manager, which read: “I’m really sorry to involve you, but the FCA has been investigating OAM and OAM Revenge.” You and I were used by them to show that there was no control, and you were afraid of my position in the company, which prevented you from speaking out. “
“I’m really sorry for embarrassing you so long ago, but I don’t think that’s enough of a reason to shut down OAM and call me incompetent and unsuitable. They might want to call you,” he concluded. The message is signed “Cx”.
She said she didn’t reply.
FCA declined to comment. Odey remains a fit and proper person on the regulator’s register of people holding regulatory approvals and the FCA’s investigation remains ongoing.
In December 2020, Odey Asset Management’s in-house lawyers also contacted the woman and asked if she would be willing to participate in the investigation led by Simmons & Simmons.
In a transcript of the January 2021 call seen by the Financial Times, one of Simons’ lawyers explained to her that it was a “fact-finding” and asked to discuss the archived 2005 incident. The Financial Times previously reported that Odey Asset Management had filed a number of similar cases, including a 2005 complaint, a 2004 sexual harassment complaint and a more recent complaint in 2020.
After describing the attack and “quite a culture of sexual harassment” at his company, she told Simmons she couldn’t recall “any measures/rules put in place to protect her after the incident.”
Simmons said its report “covers the full scope of the investigation” but declined further comment, citing client confidentiality.
Odea Asset Management declined to comment.
The woman told the Financial Times that working at Odea Asset Management had distorted her view of “normal workplace behavior” and that after careful consideration she decided to speak out now because she felt “obligated to say something” .
“I don’t do it for any purpose other than to do the right thing,” she said. “I want to show my (children) that I’m willing to do the right thing in the right situation.”
Additional coverage of Madison Marriage in London
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