* Roger Jenkins stood to get 50 mln stg "good leaver"
package
-lawyer
* Defence lawyers tell jury SFO case is misconceived,
perverse
* No evidence additional services deals were sham - defence
lawyers
* Jenkins, Tom Kalaris, Richard Boath deny fraud charges
*
* Old Bailey trial scheduled to last around five months
By Kirstin Ridley
LONDON, Oct 17 (Reuters) - A former top Barclays
executive, on trial in London on fraud charges, would have
risked a 50 million pound ($64 million) "good leaver" package if
he had sought a criminal deal with Qatar during the credit
crisis, a court heard on Thursday.
It would have been "lunacy" for Roger Jenkins, one of three
men charged with fraud over undisclosed payments to Qatar during
emergency fundraisings in 2008, to risk such accrued benefits
and a job that had paid him 38 million pounds in 2007 alone, his
lawyer told a jury at the Old Bailey criminal court.
The high-profile Serious Fraud Office (SFO) case revolves
around how Barclays -- one of the few major British banks to
survive the credit crisis without direct government aid --
raised more than 11 billion pounds ($14 billion) from Qatar and
other investors to avert a state bailout as markets roiled.
Prosecutors allege that former top executives lied to the
market and other investors by not properly disclosing 322
million pounds paid to Qatar, disguised as "bogus" advisory
services agreements (ASAs), in return for around four billion
pounds in two fundraisings over 2008.
Jenkins, the former head of the bank's Middle East business,
Tom Kalaris, who ran the wealth division and Richard Boath, a
former head of European financial institutions, deny charges of
conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation and fraud by
false representation.
Lawyers for Jenkins and Kalaris told the jury the case
against their clients was misconceived, perverse and illogical
and that there was no evidence the ASAs were a sham or fake.
In brief opening speeches before the prosecution continues
laying out its case, they alleged the defendants believed the
ASAs were genuine agreements to secure lucrative business for
Barclays in the Middle East -- a region it was keen to exploit.
They said the agreements were side deals during emergency
fundraising that June and October that had been approved by
internal and external lawyers and cleared by the board.
"The unequivocal, repeated advice was that this was
legitimate - providing the ASA was a genuine contract for the
provision of benefits to Barclays," said John Kelsey-Fry, a
senior lawyer representing Jenkins.
Jenkins, who will give evidence later, had pursued and won
the trust of Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani, the
former prime minister of Qatar, and wanted to unseat Credit
Suisse as the wealthy, gas-rich Gulf state's preferred bankers,
the jury heard.
Had Jenkins considered a fraudulent deal with Sheikh Hamad,
the sheikh might have rung up Barclays bosses and said: "Neither
I nor QIA (the sovereign wealth fund) are putting a penny in a
bank like yours. I will never do business with you again,"
Kelsey-Fry said.
Qatar Holding, part of QIA, invested in Barclays alongside
Challenger, Sheikh Hamad's investment vehicle.
The case against Kalaris, meanwhile, hung on three
conversations he had had with Boath on the afternoon of June 11,
2008, that the prosecution had "fundamentally misunderstood",
his lawyer Ian Winter said.
When Kalaris told Boath: "Noone wants to go to jail here"
and that lawyers would provide "air cover", he was trying to
ensure that a genuine ASA would be approved by legal experts as
a legitimate means of paying Qatar for real value, Winter said.
All three men, aged between 60 and 64, are charged over the
June fundraising. Jenkins, alone, also faces charges over the
October fundraising.
The trial is scheduled to last around five months.
($1 = 0.7819 pounds)
(Reporting by Kirstin Ridley; editing by David Evans)
Barclays (BARC)
