LONDON (Reuters) - Crispin Odey, one of Britain's highest-profile hedge fund managers and political donors, has been charged with sexually assaulting a woman, prosecutors said on Friday.
Odey has been charged with indecently assaulting a woman over the age of 16 in relation to an incident in 1998, a spokesman for the Crown Prosecution Service said.
"The allegation is denied and I will strongly contest this matter," Odey said in an email sent to Reuters by a representative.
London's Metropolitan Police said the incident took place at an address in Swan Walk in the capital's upmarket Chelsea district, the Thames riverside street where Odey has a home. He was charged on May 14.
Odey, 61 and founder of Odey Asset Management, is due to appear in court on Sept. 28.
A prominent figure in the financial sector, Odey donated more than 870,000 pounds to the successful campaign to leave the European Union.
Odey made headlines when he spent about 150,000 pounds on a Palladian-style stone temple to shelter chickens at his Gloucestershire mansion. (This story refiles to remove extraneous matter from paragraph 5)