Ex-Barclays Banker Boath Won’t Testify in Qatar Fraud Trial

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(Bloomberg) –Former Barclays Plc executive Richard Boath won’t testify in his U.K. trial, where he’s accused with two colleagues of hiding payments to Qatar linked to a bailout during the 2008 financial crisis.

Boath, 61, who ran the European head of the financial institutions group, along with former Middle East head Roger Jenkins and ex-wealth and investment head Tom Kalaris, is facing fraud allegations relating to information they gave the market when Barclays secured 11.2 billion pounds ($14.6 billion) in emergency cash calls at the height of the market crash, allowing it to avoid a U.K. state bailout.

The U.K. Serious Fraud Office say the bankers used so-called Advisory Services Agreements to hide 322 million pounds in investment commissions to Qatar. Jenkins and Kalaris both testified in London’s central criminal court this month. All three men deny the charges.

Boath’s lawyer, William Boyce, told the court Tuesday that Boath won’t be testifying. Judge Andrew Popplewell told the jury that the decision brought an end of the evidence part of the trial.