Crispin Odey settles sexual assault claims ahead of trial

Former hedge fund tycoon Crispin Odey has settled a string of sexual assault allegations brought against him just weeks ahead of a trial that was due next month. 

Odey had faced five personal injury claims against him brought by women who accused him of sexual assault. But he has settled four of the claims before they were due to be heard at a joint trial in June, according to the Financial Times. 

The claims included an allegation the former hedge fund manager had raped a woman in the 1990s, sexually harassed and assaulted a receptionist at the beginning of the 2000s, and groped a woman at his Chelsea home in 1998. 

Odey had denied any wrongdoing and said allegations that he had raped the women in the 1990s were “wholly false”. 

The claims were filed in the City’s High Court following the FT reporting a chain of sexual assault allegations in which 20 women had claimed in a 2023 article that Odey had sexually assaulted them. 

The women in the personal injury proceedings were also due to be witnesses in a defamation case to be jointly heard which Odey brought against the FT for its reporting of his sexual misconduct. 

However, Odey dropped the libel case in March which drew a line under the legal battle.

Odey takes the stand

In March Odey took the stand at the High Court in his case against the city watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority, as he was fronted with questions about his alleged misconduct with young female employees at his eponymous hedge fund, Odey Asset Management.

At the centre of the dispute are two claims brought against him by former receptionists at his company. 

He told the court he sacked one of the former receptionists “for being a flirt” despite admitting to making inappropriate comments to her and engaging in “flirtatious behaviour”. 

The millionaire hedge fund manager sued the watchdog last March after it hit him with a £1.8m fine and barred him from working in the financial services sector over the sexual assault allegations. 

Odey is also facing a lifetime ban from working in the City and a £1.8m fine, which he appealed against, and the Upper Tribunal is expected to make a ruling on in the next few weeks.