Former hedge fund manager Crispin Odey “bullied” colleagues not to introduce measures at his firm to protect women, a tribunal heard.
The hearing on Thursday also heard accusations that the 67-year-old threatened to close the company, Odey Asset Management (OAM), in order to put pressure on its governing body.
Mr Odey is taking legal action against the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) after it fined him £1.8m and banned him from the UK finance industry last year over how he handled disciplinary processes into his alleged sexual misconduct at OAM.
FCA lawyers told the Upper Tribunal in London that a report published by law firm Simmons & Simmons in January 2021 found at least 46 historical allegations of inappropriate conduct by Mr Odey towards female employees between 2003 and 2020.
He was then alleged to have breached the terms of a final written warning by sexually harassing a temporary receptionist in 2021.
The FCA alleges that Mr Odey then twice dismissed members of OAM’s executive committee (ExCo), which was investigating the incident, leaving himself its sole member and postponing the disciplinary process “indefinitely”.
He also threatened to close the company if he was dismissed following any disciplinary process he considered to be unfair, the tribunal heard.
Mr Odey, who gave evidence for a third day on Thursday, denies the allegations and is seeking to overturn the FCA’s ruling.
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Cross-examining him in court, Clare Sibson KC, for the regulator, said: “The threat to close the firm was an abject abuse of your power to coerce its governing body.”
Mr Odey replied: “There were no allegations over this period of time.”
Ms Sibson said: “You were bullying your own ExCo not to put in measures to protect women.”
Mr Odey answered: “Why would they do that if there were no allegations?”
The court heard the executive committee considered safeguarding measures to protect female staff, including a suggestion that Mr Odey work in the office’s basement. He is said to have described the idea as “having to stay in dungeons”.
Ms Sibson said: “You appear to struggle to recognise the consequences of your actions on other people. Do you think you are also hypersensitive to insults against yourself?”
Mr Odey replied: “Nope.”
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In his witness statement, Mr Odey said he believed he became “a poster boy for the authority’s agenda” and was the victim of “a campaign by the authority to achieve my removal”.
He said that he dismissed the committee members, who were investigating the alleged breach of the final written warning, because they had been placed in an “impossible position” by the FCA’s investigations into the allegations.
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Mr Odey also said he “could not then, and cannot now, see what other option I had” and did so to ensure that the disciplinary hearing over the alleged breach of the final written warning “could proceed in a fair and proper manner”.
He added that he believed his actions were “reasonable, proportionate and necessary”.
The tribunal is due to resume in May for lawyers on each side to close their case.
