Missing emails would 'prove' Barclays’ controversial dealings with Qatar
Lawyers acting for financier Amanda Staveley in a £700m ($935m) legal battle against Barclays have demanded the bank release "smoking gun" emails that she says would prove secret payments were made to Qatari investors. It is alleged the payments were made as part of a deal to help Barclays avoid a government bailout at the height of the global financial crisis. The bank said it is "under no obligation" to make any emails public and denies any wrongdoing.

Missing emails that 'prove' Barclays secret deal with Qatar: City financier claims bank lost key records of controversial £2.3bn loan

Barclays has been accused of hiding emails which would expose its controversial dealings with Qatari investors.

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The bank is locked in a legal battle with Prince Andrew's former lover, the City financier Amanda Staveley, over a £7.3billion fundraising effort at the height of the financial crisis.

Lawyers acting for Staveley claim that smoking gun emails from a senior unnamed staff member at the bank detail secret payments to Qatari money men for their help in saving the stricken lender.

They are demanding that Barclays releases the emails and has accused it of seeking to keep damning evidence secret, according to documents seen by the Mail. 'Barclays is well able to identify those emails and has had six months to do so,' the filing says.

Barclays denies any wrongdoing and says it is under no obligation to make any emails public.

Last week, the Mail told how Staveley had also accused Barclays of lending the Qataris £2.3billion which they then used to buy shares in the bank. Barclays denies the claim, which is also part of a Serious Fraud Office probe.

The 2008 rescue saw Middle Eastern investors swoop in and save Barclays from a Government bailout which would have allowed ministers to set rules on bonuses and payments to shareholders.

Staveley's firm PCP lined up Abu Dhabi investors to take part and earned £29.5million in fees.

Meanwhile, senior Barclays banker Roger Jenkins used his connections to secure funding from Qatar.

Staveley is suing the bank for more than £700million in damages, plus interest and costs, because she claims it handed far higher fees to the Qataris than to her firm and the investors it represented.

She argues the proof is contained in emails between businessman Ahmed Al-Sayed and colleagues at Qatar Holdings, and an unnamed figure at the bank.

PCP also claims that Jenkins himself was copied into the exchanges. It says the discussion, on October 30, 2008, focuses on a £65million arrangement fee and a separate £192million payment. These were later increased to £66million and £280million, according to PCP.

Barclays banker Roger Jenkins used his connections to secure funding from Qatar

Staveley – who is worth an estimated £105million – has been involved in a number of high-profile deals, including the sale of Manchester City Football Club to Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Mansour in 2008.

She also came close to securing Liverpool FC's sale to Dubai, although that bid ultimately fell through.

The businesswoman had a relationship with Prince Andrew, even meeting his daughters Beatrice and Eugenie, before turning down a marriage proposal in 2003.

She married Iranian businessman Mehrdad Ghodoussi in 2011 and the couple's son Alexander – nicknamed Lexi – was born in 2014 after she went into labour in a business meeting. She splits her time between Dubai and London, staying in a huge property in prestigious Park Lane when in Britain.

Staveley grew up in Yorkshire, where her father founded the Lightwater Valley theme park.

In 2013 she was diagnosed as carrying the genes for Huntington's disease, a degenerative brain condition for which there is no cure, but vowed to keep working.

She even turned up at a client meeting the same day as the diagnosis, despite advice from doctors to take a fortnight off.

Barclays did not want to comment, but instead pointed to a paragraph from its legal defence which argued that the onus was on Staveley to produce documents used in her claim. It also said it did not admit any of the claims made about the content of the emails.

Missing emails that 'prove' Barclays secret deal with Qatar: City financier claims bank lost key records of controversial £2.3bn loan Facebook

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