Two and a half years have passed since Barclays PLC (LON:BARC) dismissed senior FX trader Olivier Desbarres from his position in Singapore following an early morning foul mouthed tirade in which Mr. Desbarres unleashed a verbal assault on construction workers near his home in Singapore.
In November 2012, Mr. Desbarres left his position as Barclays Capital’s Head of FX Strategy in Asia following the firm terminating his employment, and then voluntarily left Singapore.
After a quiet period, Mr. Desbarres has rejoined the FX industry.
According to the Wall Street Journal, he is now in London and recently set up www.OlivierDesbarres.co.uk and a Twitter account to showcase his thoughts on G10 and emerging market currencies, on which he now sends research direct to clients.
Mr. Desbarres explained to the Wall Street Journal it has been a difficult few years. He was never charged with any offense from the incident and made a “personal decision” to leave Singapore, he said.
At the time of the incident, Unison Construction, the company whose operatives were the target of Mr. Desbarres’ aggression, filed a police report which resulted in an investigation by Singapore Police, however no action was taken and Mr. Desbarres left Singapore with an unblemished record.
“I had a bad moment in an otherwise highly respected career,” he said, “I had a bad blip. There were “extenuating circumstances,” he adds, but will not elaborate further on the incident. “I feel I paid a very heavy price for what was not a very dramatic incident in the grand scheme of things,” he said.
On his new website, Mr. Desbarres describes himself as an “independent strategist passionate about getting to the heart (and truth) of the matter.” Recent research includes pieces on why emerging markets are falling between the cracks, ECB quantitative easing, Greece and a U.K. general election predictor.
Mr. Desbarres says he still has a number of clients who receive his research but has not decided in which direction to take the website. “I haven’t finalized how this becomes a fully-fledged, monetized business,” he said.
The full recording of Mr. Desbarres’ outburst can be viewed here. Caution: Video contains strong language.