The women who said they were assaulted or harassed by Crispin Odey in several incidents over a 25-year period have denounced efforts by his firm’s partners to distance themselves from the scandal-hit financier.
In the wake of a Financial Times investigation detailing decades of abuse inflicted by Odey on female staff and acquaintances, the partners at his eponymous firm Odey Asset Management on Saturday said they had removed him from the business.
This followed a number of financial institutions acting swiftly to cut ties with the hedge fund, including Morgan Stanley, Exane, Goldman Sachs and Schroders.
Peter Martin, chief executive of Odey Asset Management, and Michael Ede, chief operating and financial officer, said in a statement on Saturday that Odey was leaving the partnership and that as of then he “will no longer have any economic or personal involvement”.
The name of the company, which has about $4.4bn of assets under management, will also change, according to a person familiar with the situation.
Some of the 13 women who came forward for the FT investigation said efforts by the partners to hold Odey to account had come far too late.
One of the women, who said she was assaulted by Odey in his London townhouse following a business meeting in 2013, said: “When are people in power going to do the right thing when it’s the right time?
“The right time is not after significant public exposure and opinion is affecting cash flows. It’s appallingly transparent his abuse was only relevant when the bottom line was relevant.”
She added: “It is positive that there are repercussions, but there has been complicit consent when management doesn’t act with integrity and intent for nearly 20 years. Odey’s senior management should be held accountable and feel some of the shame I’ve felt for the past 10 years.”
It is not clear what mechanism the firm’s executive committee had used to remove Odey, who holds a majority stake. Odey suggested to the FT he might fight the move but has not commented further.
As part of the FT’s investigation, several women suggested Odey’s behaviour was “normalised” at the company.
One, who worked there as a marketing assistant in the early 2010s, has said that Martin, then her boss and now chief executive, explicitly told her not to agree to any shopping trips with Odey. “You were just told to avoid that situation,” she previously told the FT.
In reaction to news of Odey’s ousting, a woman who said she was violently assaulted by him at his Gloucestershire mansion, Eastbach Court, in late 2021 said: “[Senior figures at the firm] are still guilty of hiding his behaviour and they are complicit. They might have got rid of the disgraceful head but they are still guilty.”
A former receptionist, who was physically harassed by Odey, agreed: “It is not enough. The partners continued to function throughout the years knowing what he was doing to female employees and other women in general. In my opinion they are also complicit.”
Echoing comments made on Saturday in a statement announcing Odey’s departure, Odey Asset Management said: “We can only reiterate that the executive committee takes all allegations of misconduct extremely seriously and its robust policies and procedures have been followed at all times.”
Another former female employee who came forward as part of the FT’s investigation challenged the firm’s statement that it has “robust policies and procedures that have been followed at all times”.
“Then again, maybe robust is the word [because] they have covered and allowed for him to continue abusing women for such a long time,” she said.
A law firm representing Odey previously told the FT allegations against him were “strenuously disputed”. Last week Odey said that “none of the allegations have been stood up in a courtroom or an investigation”.
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