Former Barclays executives Roger Jenkins and Richard Boath didn’t know much about private equity executive Amanda Staveley back in 2008. She was a “complete unknown,” Jenkins told his second British courtroom this year. Well, not a complete unknown, to Jenkins anyway, since he admits she’d “received some publicity” for her role in the Abu Dhabi royal family’s purchase of soccer team Manchester City, and also that she “had no qualifications in finance.” Oh, also “that she had once owned a restaurant by a racecourse and that was how she had made connections with Middle Eastern individuals.”
Specifically, the Middle Eastern individuals who invested $15 billion in Barclays in its time of desperate need, which deal landed Jenkins first in the dock and now on the witness stand trying to explain why Staveley doesn’t deserve a penny for that investment.
Oh: Jenkins and Boath knew, or thought they knew, some other things about Staveley, too:
Mr Boath said, during the October 2008 call: “Yes. Now, that dolly bird that represents – is it – what’s her name?”, the transcript showed.
Mr Jenkins replied: “Amanda Staveley.”
“I can handle dolly-birds,” Jenkins assured Boath.
Later in the call, Mr Jenkins said: “Well I am – you know, I’m going to call the tart; I was going to call the tart.”
Mr Boath asked: “Who’s the tart?” Mr Jenkins replied: “Amanda.”
Ex-Barclays bankers call female boss ‘tart’ and ‘dolly bird’ [BBC]
Barclays Bankers Called Financer Amanda Staveley a ‘Dolly-Bird’ and ‘Tart’ [Bloomberg]