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Article snippet: LONDON — British officials brought criminal charges on Tuesday against Barclays and four former executives over deals it struck with Qatar to avoid a government bailout during the 2008 global financial crisis, in the latest in a series of regulatory blows against the bank. The allegations, from the Serious Fraud Office of Britain, are the first time that a British bank and its former executives have been charged criminally with wrongdoing as a result of actions taken as the financial crisis worsened. The charges take aim at a cloud that has hung over the bank for years — namely, questions as to how Barclays was able to steer through the crisis without government assistance. Nine years ago, the British bank raised nearly 12 billion pounds — more than $15 billion at today’s exchange rates — from an arm of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund and other investors in two deals, in June 2008 and in October 2008. The deals allowed it to avoid a bailout as a number of major banks on both sides of the Atlantic floundered and sought government lifelines. The Serious Fraud Office has been scrutinizing whether Barclays properly disclosed an agreement it struck with Qatar at the time that led the lender to pay more than £300 million for “advisory services” as part of the fund-raising. The office has also been examining a $3 billion loan facility that Barclays made available to the Qatar government in November 2008. The fraud office said that it had charged Barclays, John S. Varley, ... Link to the full article to read more