Brecqhou billionaire battle takes another turn

Saturday 23 May 2020

One of the Barclay brothers’ nephews has publicly criticised their billionaire uncle after he accused him of secretly recording his conversations.

The legal battle over the alleged ‘bugging’ between media mogul Sir Frederick Barclay and the three sons of his twin, Sir David Barclay, is currently being considered by a UK High Court.

The matter came before the courts when Sir Frederick and his daughter, Amanda, started legal action alleging misuse of private information and a breach of confidence.

Each of the three sons, and one of their children, were the respondents, alongside a Barclay Group board member. Sir Frederick last week released CCTV footage showing his nephew Alistair Barclay, allegedly installing a bugging device at the Ritz Hotel in London.

Pictured: Sir Frederick accused his nephews of secretly recording him by bugging a conservatory at the Ritz.

But two of the nephews 0 Aidan and Howard Barclay - have now broken their silence on the feud by issuing a public statement, which takes aim at their uncle, Sir Frederick, accusing him of undermining the family businesses and distressing their relatives.

They also suggest that they will be pursuing counteraction against their uncle. 

As reported in the Times, the Misters Barclay said the following: “We have, until now, resisted making public statements... however, due to the consistent, misleading and damaging briefing to the media against us and our family businesses, we feel it is necessary to set the record straight.”

They claim that their uncle is not “directly involved” in running the Barclays’ family businesses and hasn’t been for decades.

The statement, released through Ellerman, the family holding company continued: “Despite this, he [Sir Frederick] has for some time been conducting uninformed conversations with a range of third parties about sensitive commercial matters relating to the group. 

Pictured: Sir David's sons have taken their grievances with their uncle into the public eye.

“At a time of unprecedented economic uncertainty, we cannot allow anything to undermine our attempts to do what is best for the future of our family businesses and the many thousands of employees.

“As such, we will actively pursue our options for recourse against Sir Frederick. We deeply regret that we have reached this juncture. We are concerned about Sir Frederick and hope that he will desist from his damaging activities and public commentary, which are at risk of harming our businesses, against his daughter’s interests also, and causing distress to the wider family.” 

It was also reported that Sir Frederick commented on the statement through a spokesperson, saying that he finds it “baffling.”

He added: “We too would have liked to have resolved this in the family. Sadly, the egregious actions of the defendants in this case have complicated matters considerably. This statement issued on behalf of my nephews is inaccurate, inept and ill-informed.”