UT (Tax & Chancery) UT-2022-0000150 - [2024] UKUT 00254 (TCC)

Some of the references included statements that Mr Kalaris had been supportive of regulatory compliance during the years before 2014. For example, Mr Chester B Feldberg. who worked with Mr Kalaris between 2000 and 2008 in his role as Chairman of Barclays’ Governance and Control Committee, said he could rely on Mr Kalaris to “take prompt and effective action” to address any weaknesses in Barclays’ governance procedures. Sir David Walker, Barclays’ Chairman from 2012, said Mr Kalaris had “an acute and well-developed capacity to determine and chart the ethically right course in any business situation even where this might have at least short-term negative consequences”, and gave two examples. Mr Richard Berliand, who had previously worked under Mr Kalaris at JP Morgan, said he “consistently promoted a culture of regulatory respect and compliance”.

However, none of the referees were called as witnesses in these proceedings and so could not be cross-examined. Moreover, this evidence all relates to the period before the Interviews, in the course of which we have found Mr Kalaris to have been dishonest and lacking candour. We find that the evidence given by the referees as to Mr Kalaris’s approach to regulatory compliance in the period before 2014 does not form a reliable basis for making a finding of fact about Mr Kalaris’s fitness and propriety at the time of the Decision or, indeed, at the time of this judgment.