A former senior banker at Barclays recently told the court in London that orders came to leave him after a heart attack to help rescue the bank at the height of the credit crisis.
Roger Jenkins is facing the trial, along with two other former executives at Barclays, over the way the bank secured about four billion pounds ($ 5.2 billion) in rescue funding from Qatar in 2008.
A brief shake appeared on Jenkins, who received a recommendation to reward 25 million pounds for his Qatari investment arrangement over June and October 2008, when prosecutor Edward Brown asked him if his personal interests were all he was seeking to achieve.
"To answer your question, Mr. Brown ... I had a heart attack on August 5, 2008 and I was instructed to leave my bed and family on August 29 and return to work to help this bank continue," Jenkins, 64, told jurors at Old Bailey Criminal Court. .
(Barclays) avoided the fate of rivals (Lloyds) and (Royal Bank of Scotland) did not have to ask for state assistance by raising 11 billion pounds over the course of 2008.
But prosecutors for the Serious Fraud Office in Britain say the three men have lied to the market and other investors about 322 million pounds in additional fees paid by Qatar, and have been artificially hidden as advisory services agreements.
Jenkins, the former head of Barclays activities in the Middle East, and Tom Claris, who ran the wealth management unit, and Richard Booth, former director of the European Financial Institutions division, deny conspiracy to commit fraud by misleading and committing the same crime, and the sentences for both crimes amount to a prison sentence of ten. Years.
Jenkins, who was once known as the "Qatar Gateway Guarder" due to his close personal relationship with the former Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr Al Thani, said that the consulting services agreements were approved by lawyers and that they were aimed at achieving value for Barclays as an investment in real services.
He told the jury: "The value is the umbrella that covers services, consulting, presentation and the course of the deal. It is my crutches that I lean on."
He was asked why Jay Huey Evans, former director of Barclays in charge of building relationships with sovereign wealth funds in 2008, was unaware of the additional service agreements offered to Qatar, and his response was that her testimony was "very surprising."
But he added that his extreme preoccupation prevented checking the fulfillment of various items on the task list regarding the way to monetize the investment of advisory services agreements in the hectic atmosphere that prevailed in 2008, when executives were facing the risk of losing their rewards and jobs and the banks were on the verge of collapse.
He said, "I regret that I did not verify that the various items on the task list were fulfilled and I did not deal with it. This was done later."