The chair of Parliament’s Treasury Committee, Harriett Baldwin, has called for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to reveal the extent of its investigation into Odey Asset Management following allegations of sexual assault by the firm’s founder, Crispin Odey. The asset manager has faced turmoil since the publication last week of a Financial Times investigation into Odey’s behaviour towards women over 25 years. The FCA should disclose further information about its supervision of the firm and its wider work on non-financial misconduct, Baldwin wrote in a letter.
Baldwin noted the potential damage caused to the sector by a “deeply negative picture of one powerful individual’s conduct”. The letter also sought a series of specific questions about Odey Asset Management and Odey. Odey resigned his directorships at the Odey Foundation and Odey Wealth in response to the allegations, which he denies. The University of Oxford and Gresham College, where the foundation was a major donor, both announced the renunciation of the Odey name.