Barclays faces Qatari fraud claim

Sun Jun 22, 2008 4:48pm BST

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LONDON (Reuters) - Claims from a senior member of the Qatari royal family over an alleged 50 million euro (39.6 million pounds) fraud at Barclays (BARC.L) could flare up again just as the UK bank seeks to raise funds from Qatar, a newspaper said on Sunday.

The Sunday Times said a billionaire sheikh, a member of Qatar's ruling Al Thani family, claims that gross negligence by Barclays allowed an employee of the sheikh to siphon off about 4 million euros a month from a personal account in Spain.

The allegations relate to transactions that took place between December 2001 and February 2003, and the sheikh is expected to increase pressure to settle the claim as the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) prepares to buy a small stake in the bank, the paper said.

Barclays declined to comment on the issue.

It is expected to announce this week plans to raise about 4 billion pounds from several outside investors, including QIA, Singapore-based sovereign wealth fund Temasek TEM.UL, China Development Bank and Japan's Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group

(8316.T).

(Reporting by Steve Slater; Editing by Paul Bolding)

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