(Alliance News) - Barclays PLC bosses say a businesswoman who claims that the bank misled her, shareholders and the market when negotiating investment deals during the 2008 global financial crisis is painting a "false" picture.
A barrister leading the bank's legal team has told a High Court judge that Amanda Staveley's claim was "made of sand".
Jeffery Onions said Staveley's evidence was not supported by documentation.
Lawyers representing Staveley have told Justice Waksman that bank bosses agreed to provide an unsecured GBP2 billion loan to Qatari investors.
They said the loan was "concealed" from the market, shareholders and from PCP Capital Partners, a private equity firm run by Staveley.
PCP is suing the bank and wants GBP1.6 billion damages.
Staveley's firm says it is owed money for the work it did setting up a Middle East investment deal for Barclays during the 2008 crisis.
But lawyers representing Barclays have described PCP's damages claim as "opportunistic and speculative".
They say "PCP in fact made no loss".
Justice Waksman is overseeing a trial at the High Court in London, which began on Monday and is expected to last two months.
"Barclays does not accept much of the evidence of Ms Staveley," Onions told the trial, which is being broadcast online, on Tuesday.
"The picture Ms Staveley seeks to paint is false. It is not a simple claim. A more complex claim, in causation terms, is more difficult to imagine. Barclays say the foundation on which her claim is built is in fact made of sand."
He added: "The evidence of Ms Staveley bears little if any relationship to what is revealed by the contemporaneous documents."
Staveley, who in recent months has been involved in brokering a deal which could see a Saudi consortium take control of Premier League football club Newcastle United, is due to give evidence later in the week.
A barrister leading PCP's legal team outlined the firm's claim, and made allegations against Barclays, on Monday.
Joe Smouha told Justice Waksman that the claims arose out of the recapitalisation of Barclays during the financial crisis in October and November 2008.
Smouha said PCP had introduced a Middle Eastern investor, His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi, to Barclays and "subscribed" to invest GBP3.25 billion.
He said the only other "strategic investors" were the State of Qatar and its prime minister, Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr Al-Thani.
But he said PCP had been induced to invest on "manifestly worse terms" than the Qatari Investors
Smouha said the Qatari Investors had demanded and, in order to obtain the investment, Barclays had agreed to pay: an additional fee of GBP280 million; a "yet further fee of GBP66 million" and to provide "an entirely unsecured loan" of GBP2 billion.
He told the judge: "Barclays deliberately misled not only PCP but also its own shareholders and the market in this regard."
In February, three former Barclays bosses were cleared of fraud over a GBP4 billion investment deal with Qatar at the height of the banking crisis.
The Serious Fraud Office had alleged that lucrative terms given to Qatar were hidden from the market and other investors.
But Roger Jenkins, Thomas Kalaris, and Richard Boath were acquitted by jurors following a trial at the Old Bailey.
Barclays shares 4.0% lower at 126.58 pence each in London on Tuesday afternoon.
source: PA
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