Crispin Odey drops his libel case against the Pink 'Un

When Crispin Odey launched a £79 million libel claim against the Financial Times in 2024, eyebrows were raised in the legal world: defamation payouts in England and Wales rarely trouble six figures, to the extent a £1 million settlement paid to Sir Elton John by The Sun way back in 1989 still stands out.

Fans of legal milestones will have to wait a while yet, though: Odey has now officially dropped his case against the Pink ‘Un.

The disgraced financier began his libel action against the FT in 2024 after it published allegations that he had sexually assaulted several women. The case was filed at the High Court almost a year after the paper and Tortoise Media first jointly published the accusations.

The reports included claims from several women that they had been abused or harassed by him, with some alleging sexual assault. Odey, one of the most prominent financial supporters of the campaign to leave the EU, denied the allegations against him, saying they were “rubbish”.

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It has emerged now, though, that on Friday afternoon the FT received a letter from Odey’s lawyers stating that the 67-year-old had been “forced to accept” that the publication was “likely to succeed in establishing” its public interest defence.

The paper said that two months ago, it had served Odey with the “substantial” disclosure of evidence relating to its investigations into his behaviour that it had intended to rely on in court. They added that 15 women had said they were willing to go to court to testify on its behalf, including three whose allegations had not previously been reported. Odey will now have to pay a seven-figure sum for the FT’s legal costs on top of his own.

Odey’s lawyers said in the letter to the newspaper: “Having just endured the stress and strain of a three-week trial in the Upper Tribunal, he does not wish to pursue another lengthy trial at considerable cost, only to fail on the issue of public interest, even if he was successful, as he believes he would be, in demonstrating that he is not the violent predator he was presented as being in the articles.”

The financier is currently taking legal action against the Financial Conduct Authority, which a year ago fined him £1.8 million and banned from the UK finance industry over how he handled disciplinary processes into his alleged sexual misconduct at his firm, Odey Asset Management.

Lawyers for the authority told a tribunal last month that a report published by law firm Simmons & Simmons in 2021 found at least 46 historical allegations of inappropriate conduct by Odey towards female employees at the firm between 2003 and 2020.