LONDON (Reuters) - British businesswoman Amanda Staveley's $1 billion civil lawsuit against Barclays (L:BARC) will not go to trial before October 2019 to avoid any prejudice to a parallel criminal case, a London court ruled on Wednesday.
Barclays and Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) on Thursday confirmed the decision after a partly private hearing into whether the Staveley trial, originally listed for next January, should be postponed.
The civil trial will now be heard after Barclays and four former senior executives, including ex-CEO John Varley, face a jury over undisclosed payments to Qatari investors during a 12 billion pound ($16 billion) emergency fundraising during the financial crisis in 2008.
The SFO in June filed fraud charges against Barclays and Varley, Roger Jenkins, Tom Kalaris and Richard Boath after investigating a two-part fundraising that included a $3 billion loan to Qatar, in the first criminal prosecution of a bank and senior managers over credit crisis-era events.
Barclays has said it is considering its position and the men have said they will fight the charges.
Both the SFO and the Staveley case against the bank focus on Barclays' arrangements with Qatari investors as it struggled to raise funds to avoid a state bailout during the height of the global credit crunch.
Staveley's private equity group PCP Capital Partners is claiming damages for alleged fraudulent misrepresentation in a row over whether Barclays offered Qatar and Abu Dhabi investors the same deal terms for participating in a fundraising in 2008.
PCP, which represented Abu Dhabi investors in 2008, alleges the bank made "sham" payments to Qatari investors, including the $3 billion loan.
Barclays has called the PCP lawsuit "misconceived".
