(Reuters) – John Varley, the former CEO of Barclays, was acquitted of fraud charges on Friday after senior judges said there was insufficient evidence in a UK Serious Fraud Office case against him over Qatari cash injections that saved the bank from a state bailout in 2008.

Prosecutors had charged the veteran banker with conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation, accusing him of plotting to pay Qatar secret fees to help rescue the bank at the height of the credit crisis.

But judges at the Court of Appeal ruled the case against him was insufficient to proceed.

The case against three other former Barclays executives – Roger Jenkins, the then chairman of investment management in the Middle East, ex-wealth management head Tom Kalaris and Richard Boath, who headed the corporate finance business – is to be retried.

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