Ex-Barings man gets four-year ban

Ex-Barings man gets four-year ban

A Joint Disciplinary Scheme tribunal has decided to exclude former Barings Group deputy chairman Andrew Tuckey from the ICAEW for four years, for his failure to control rogue trader Nick Leeson.

The JDS found that Tuckey, currently a senior adviser with investment bank Credit Suisse First Boston, failed to perform his managerial duties in relation to Barings Futures Singapore and as a consequence allowed trader Nick Leeson to bring down Britain’s oldest bank.

Leeson managed to accumulate massive losses amounting to Pounds 860m, in effect gambling the entire bank on the market and losing. Barings was eventually sold to Dutch bank ING for the sum of one Pound.

Tuckey was deputy chairman of Barings plc, the Barings Group parent company, when joint administrators were appointed by the High Court on 26 February 1995 following the unauthorised trading by Leeson.

While the tribunal accepted Tuckey spent 80% of his time winning clients and admitted significant failings in management below him, it found Tuckey had ‘abdicated his management responsibility’ for BFS to others, a decision he was not entitled to make.

As a consequence, he failed in his duty to monitor or control the activities Leeson, nor did he undertake a close examination of BFS’s profitability. The apparent profits reported by BFS during 1993 and 1994 formed a very large part of the apparent profit of Barings plc.

In addition he failed to investigate the SLK Receivable, a fictitious document which claimed Barings would receive £50m from a New York. However, the Tribunal did accept Tuckey was not as culpable as some other managers were.

Tuckey, 57, accepted the judgement of Justice Jonathan Parker. In an agreed statement, he said his conduct fell below that to be expected of an ICAEW Member.

In November last year, Accountancy Age reported that former Barings director Simon Dominic Jones will face an accountants’ Joint Disciplinary Tribunal over his role and responsibilities in the period leading up to the bank’s collapse.

In August, Coopers & Lybrand (now part of PriceWaterhouseCoopers) launched an appeal against a JDS Tribunal verdict over its role as auditor of Barings. The appeal is to be heard in September 2001.

In 1998, Tuckey was disqualified by the High Court from acting as a company director after proceedings were brought against him by the Department of Trade & Industry.

Tuckey, when contacted by AccountancyAge.com, declined to comment.

Links

Ex-Barings chief faces tribunal

PwC lodges appeal against watchdog findings on Barings

JDS tribunal for former Barings’ deputy chairman

Bank of England facing legal move by Barings creditors

JDS Online

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