Jonathan Pickworth, who heads the white-collar practice at the law firm White & Case in London, asked why Britain’s fraud office had moved forward with a case so long after the initial infusion.

“Why is it in the public interest to prosecute the bank for its fund-raising efforts almost a decade ago?” Mr. Pickworth said. “Who does it punish, and what purpose does it serve? All the former management team moved on many years ago. This will only hurt the current shareholders and today’s hardworking employees.”

Shares of Barclays fell nearly 2 percent in trading in London.

Global banks, including Barclays, have paid billions of dollars in fines in recent years as a result of abuses involving mortgages, Libor and currencies. And Barclays was one of four banks that entered guilty pleas in 2015 to federal crimes in the United States over a scheme to manipulate the foreign exchange market.



Still, criminal charges against a bank and former top executives are rare.

The Qatar case revolves around actions by Barclays as it sought to avoid a bailout during declining economic conditions in 2008.

The bank raised nearly 12 billion pounds — about $15 billion at current exchange rates — from an arm of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund and other investors in two deals, in June and October 2008. The moves 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 with Qatar that led it 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, Mr. Varley, its former chief executive, and the former executives Roger A. Jenkins, Thomas L. Kalaris and Richard W. Boath with conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation related to the June 2008 fund-raising.