Thread by @tariqpanja

Amanda Staveley's business partner in PCP, Craig Eadie, being cross examined by Barclays lawyer today. He's having a tough time. Calls into question what exactly PCP is. Hard to think of it as anything more than a broker/middleman at this point.

What's happening in the High Court calls into question claims about Staveley and her company that are routinely made and regularly appear in articles like this: thetimes.co.uk/article/amanda…

Among the interesting aspects from the court hearing have been details of the fight from PCP to get paid anything at all from Abu Dhabi following the deal. Initial amount offered was 5m GBP, eventually an agreement struck at 30m GBP. Reminder Staveley/PCP suing for 1.5bn GBP

Former Tory MP David Mellor at the centre of this, too. He was working as part of Staveley's team, and was also looking for a payday

Amanda Staveley's partner in PCP Craig Eadie confirmed in court this afternoon that at least in 2008, when Mansour's Barclays investment was made, PCP was essentially a two person company - he and Staveley.

Ordeal over for Craig Eadie. That was brutal.

At the time of the Barclays deal, PCP had a cashflow issue, there was little in the coffers, while Staveley herself faced an ongoing IVA situation with a bunch of creditors, including Barclays.

What was also interesting were details of how Gulf royalty, at least in this instance, does business. It all seems very informal. In order to get paid Staveley had to drop $ on random men with access to Mansour. A Mr Chaloub and a Mr Hassanieh were among those namechecked

Craig Eadie back in court today. Court hears Manchester City takeover first material deal PCP/ Staveley had ever done.

Staveley made a new contact, Sheik Mansour, in the course of the Manchester City deal. She got to know him after that, and shortly after that started spending more time in the Gulf.

Eadie now being asked why PCP allowed itself to be perceived as an advisory company when it was not registered by the FSA. Discussion also turns on what PCP told the FSA when the regulator investigated it a decade ago

Staveley giving evidence now. It's uncomfortable.

Court broke for lunch amid discussion of fallout between David Mellor and Staveley. Last words before the break were about her feat that he would go to the press. Quite the remark given recent events.

*fear

Staveley on Sheikh Mansour: "He's my friend and will be for many years to come." He hasn't provided a witness statement or given evidence as Staveley had claimed.

Staveley now being pressed on convenient media leaks, including a letter she penned to Sheikh Mansour amid a dispute over commissions with Abu Dhabi officials and businessmen

It's taken an ugly turn. Staveley accused of making up claim she had a direct relationship with Mansour. She says there's no proof because she was using a pay as you go phone in UAE. She claims that the Gulf royal now has a preference for Whatsapp.

Another mucky episode related to the fees and commissions: Court heard that David Mellor turned up "foul mouthed and drunk" at a meeting with Arab businessman.

Penny for Sheik Mansour's thoughts. His name coming up at every turn as discussion continues on tawdry efforts by a bunch of middlemen to get cut of Barclays commission

It's also pointed out that Amanda Staveley was working for Thaksin and not Sheikh Mansour during the sale of Manchester City in 2008

We're back on court. Start delayed as complaint made about derogatory comments made against Staveley by a member of Barclays legal team after yesterday's session finished but was inadvertently broadcast over Zoom. Modern life!

Staveley says PCP received 10m pounds for its role in Manchester City deal. In court it was made clear she acted for Thaksin. Says it must have been in Dubai, and netted 5 million pounds after others paid.

The cast of characters involved in this Barclays deal is interesting. One of the middlemen Staveley dealt with and had to pay is the son of a former Afghan defence minister

Staveley being pressed on her claims of her relationship with Mansour. Lawyer going through her travel schedule in detail, before saying, "You could not have met Sheikh Mansour @ the Emirates Palace hotel on Oct 9 could you?"
Staveley: "Must have been the week before."😬

You have to wonder why for all these years, neither Staveley or her people have tried to correct misconception that she acted for Sheikh Mansour in Manchester City deal. First time that appears to have been clear is in her witness statement.

This case also raises the spectre of the SFO returning for a second look at Staveley/PCP/ Eadie. Lawyer for Barclays suggesting inconsistencies in evidence in this case and evidence provided previously to the Serious Fraud Office. (No suggestion it was deliberate)

A key document (a model for the Barclays deal) may have been lost in a fire or a home theft, Staveley seems to suggest. This key document was only available in hard copy, she suggests because her analyst was "old fashioned" and didn't email.

Judge threatening to stop live stream of the case because of potential misuse

Questioning returns to content of a key letter sent by PCP's Craig Eadie to Serious Fraud Office. Staveley says she was not fully aware of its contents because she was distracted by the passing of her grandmother, a figure that had raised her.

As court resumes, here's a piece on how Sheikh Mansour associate Ali Jassim, a key witness for Staveley in her case against Newcastle, was called in to join Staveley and Instagram influencer Carla DiBello in pursuit of Newcastle: nytimes.com/2020/06/15/spo…

Mr Onions, Barclays lawyer, appears to be getting redder and redder as the day progresses.

Colonel Gaddafi has now come up.

Biggest flash point yet. Mr Onions, Barclays lawyer, to Staveley, after a particularly tough line of questioning: "Ms Staveley I'm afraid to say that you have invented this story."
Staveley says the claim makes her "furious"

For folks wondering what a majlis is

Staveley tells the court that Sheikh Mansour "has perfect English". Mr Onions asked her to then explain why then in a witness statement she had described it as "very bad". She said she meant his English was bad over the phone.

We now get namechecks for Darren Lyons (see pic below) and Larry Fink, the chairman of BlackRock

What a life Staveley leads. The reference to Lyons, a paparazzo, was about a phone call/message between the two when Staveley was supposedly attending a majlis hosted by Sheikh Mansour. Barclays defence casting doubt about events at the majlis.

Details now about a lawyer who was acting for Mansour in 2008 being accused of stealing $97 million from Thaksin's
sale of Manchester City in 2008. Case was in court in Abu Dhabi in 2011 before being settled

This is the story from the time: arabianbusiness.com/dubai-lawyer-d…

After discussions about a "heads of terms" document turn contentious, Onions accuses Staveley of embellishing a story to underscore her case: "You have continued to embellish that story in the witness box... you are lying."
Staveley insists she isn't.

Email read out from Goldman Sachs, which was working with Staveley on the deal, suggesting the publicity Staveley had sought/attracted at the time would not "go down well in AD".

The hearing didn’t sit today. From tomorrow it will no longer be available over stream. Judge’s ruling.

Amanda Staveley breaks down in tears as Barclays lawyer launches 29 minute rebuttal of her case, demolishing almost all of her evidence. Staveley’s lawyer says Mr Onions finish was “extraordinary and bizarre.”

That was extraordinary, Mr Onions went point by point to dismantle Staveley’s evidence and said she was engaged in a “hustle”

Onions claims (which Staveley denied):
1. She significantly exaggerated her relationship with Sheikh Mansour.
2. Carefully cultivated the impression of a close relationship with Mansour.
3. Barclays believes AS not truthful about being in phone contact with Mansour.

4. Barclays believe AS saw an opportunity “to insert” herself into a deal because of her business partner Craig Eadie’s relationship with Barclays executive John Varley.
5. Said Staveley was “engaged in a hustle”.
6. Claims she made up claim of attending Mansour’s majlis

7. Said Staveley’s description or talks with Mansour were “implausible and not capable of belief”
8. Claims she annoyed Abu Dhabi by seeking publicity for herself.
9. Claims she made a false claim for £11m in third party expenses

12. Didn’t get underwriting fees because counterparty “saw you as someone prepared to lie and use false documents to get paid on false pretences.”
13. Claimed she thought Barclays would settle because of bad publicity over criminal SFO investigation.

14. Claim that Staveley “invented the story” of Roger Jenkins of Barclays telling her she would get same deal is Qatar.
15. He said deal Staveley claimed to have lose would have been “commercially ridiculous.”

Judge has called for a breather before we get going again.

After 🧅😭 gate - Staveley will be re-examined briefly by her own lawyer

PCP statement after that: We are confident in the strength of our claim against Barclays. PCP Capital Partners suffered a very substantial loss due to misrepresentations made by Barclays management during the 2008 capital raising.

expressandstar.com/news/uk-news/2…

Staveley’s lawyer hits back saying documents Barclays QC Mr Onions claimed didn’t exist in fact do exist, including a presentation outlining the transaction, and were disclosed to Barclays.

There is one man who can clear all of this up.

Staveley on Mansour: He’s a generous and kind man. What he doesn’t like is paying too many fees up front.

Staveley 6-day stint in witness box ends. Her lawyer tells the judge to reject what he claims are new and “unsupported allegations of fraud”

Mr Onions says his roundup “was done entirely properly.”

So, shipping mogul Victor Restis who would have backed up Staveley’s claim she attended a majlis hosted by Sheikh Mansour in 2008 will now not be giving evidence. Staveley’s lawyers say they no longer require him. Barclays say she made up the meeting.

Mr Onions says Mr Resits had been “proposing to give knowingly false evidence” and would have put that claim to him had he showed up in court.

This morning's witness banker Ramez Attieh joins by videolink from UAE. He's asked why he only decided to add fact he was actually an employee at Staveley's company PCP this Saturday, two days before he gave evidence. Lawyer suggests he had been trying to look independent of AS

Ali Jassim now on from Puerto Rico. Described himself until 2016 as "heavily involved" in Sheikh Mansour's private investments. Now says he works for Mansour on an "ad hoc" basis from Puerto Rico and retains a personal relationship.

Jassim in his witness statement said he worked for Mansour on the buyside of the deal to acquire Manchester City and that's how he met Staveley 12 years ago. He would have been in his late 20s/ early 30s then

Now reference is drawn to Sulaiman al Fahim who was lined up to be chairman of Man City before he was ditched in favour of Khaldoon al Mubarak. Al-Fahim famously briefly took control of Portsmouth. It didn’t go well. google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.…

Jassim confirms that a lawyer acting for the buy side in City deal was later convicted of embezzling $97m of the funds paid to Thaksin for the City sale. Dr al Mohairi has been described in court as a lawyer for Sheikh Mansour and PCP.

According to Ali Jassim "Sheikh Mansour always spoke very highly of Ms Staveley and referred to her as a smart businesswoman, which to me signified her standing in his eyes, since he rarely formed a view on low-level employees or brokers."

Jassim talks up Staveley's role in Barclays rescue: I think it unlikely that Abu Dhabi would have invested at all. From coming up with the idea and making the initial contact with Barclays, she drove the investment forward and made the strategic decisions.

Mr Onions asks Jassim why he said in his witness statement that in 2008 he "was aware of (Staveley's) growing reputation in the Gulf as a notable dealmaker" when she had not completed a single major transaction at that time.

Onions then asks Jassim if he was actually supporting Staveley and not actually advising Sheikh Mansour. Jassim says that’s not the case. He was advising Mansour.

Jassim says size and publicity of the Barclays deal was so big that he would have required "the blessing from his older brothers" before a final agreement could be made.

Sheikh Mansour was about to hop onto a helicopter in Kazakhstan about to go on a hunting trip when he held a critical call with Barclays then CEO John Varley to confirm he would invest in the bank's rescue.

Ramez Attieh has finished giving evidence. He was the former Deutsche Bank executive who belatedly remembered to add to his witness statement he worked at PCP later. He amended his LinkedIn overnight, ahead of his appearance today, to add a few extra months to his time at PCP

Ali Jassim back from Puerto Rico. Agrees with Mr Onions that Abu Dhabi would not have looked very kindly on some of the talk of the deal in British papers, specifically the commission to be paid to PCP. Abu Dhabi "wouldn't be thrilled about it," Jassim says.

Ali Jassim describes Sheikh Mansour as having a lot of telephone numbers. "Ms Staveley did not have an inner circle number," he said, before adding, she did have "one of his private numbers" that it's possible he could have answered. Mansour must have a lot of phones on hand.

Wonder if Pep has an "inner circle" number for Mansour.

To be clear, Jassim said it’s possible Mansour would pick up a call on a number Staveley had if he was able to. (What’s unclear is how many phones Mansour would have on his person, his staff would also carry his phones it seems.).

In court today Roger Jenkins apologised to Amanda Staveley for calling her "the tart". He also acknowledged he had exaggerated the role of his ex-wife in the 2008 Barclays rescue because she was jealous of the press coverage Staveley had received.

While not acknowledging that Staveley was a principal in the Barclays rescue (something that is key to the case), former Barclays Mideast head Roger Jenkins conceded: "Miss Staveley fulfilled a very good job as an advisor to Sheikh Mansour."

Incendiary claim in witness statement from David Forbes, who worked for Abu Dhabi company IPIC. Claims Staveley made an "improper and dishonest attempt ... to extract from IPIC a payment of £11 million in alleged reimbursement of costs that PCP had never in fact incurred."

Staveley when she gave evidence claimed the £11m requested to be paid to a Gibralter based company called Yeltex was above board and was for "underwriting fees"

Forbes also had this to say: The more time that we spent with Ms Staveley the more we began to build up a picture of her as someone who would confidently make assertions which proved to lack any real foundation or which she would later contradict without realising.

Pointed out to Forbes that his former boss Khadim al Qubaisi, central figure in Barclays rescue, is now in jail for fraud in Abu Dhabi. He has since lost the title of "his excellency".

David Forbes having a tough time under cross examination. He has mis-recalled a major piece of his evidence, a meeting that may or may not have taken place. He has visibly changed color this afternoon. His complexion is (and has been for the past hour or so) bright red

Mr Forbes is back and he's not doing much better. Feels like he will be reduced to a puddle by the time this session is over.