Former Barclays chief Jes Staley heads to court to clear name from associations to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein
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On Monday Jes Staley, the former chief executive of Barclays, is slated to appear in court for a case that will dredge back up his links to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
The hearing will not only unravel Mr Staley’s own personal circumstances, but also history of his relationship with Epstein, who died in prison by suicide awaiting trial on charges for sex-trafficking underage women.
A large number of prominent people are set to either be mentioned by name or asked to appear to give evidence, including Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey, Prince Andrew, UK ambassador to the US Lord Peter Mandelson and Bernie Madoff, the mind behind a $65 billion (£52 billion) Ponzi scheme who died in 2021 after being sentenced to 150 years in jail.
Mr Staley is seeking to clear his name after he was banned by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in 2023 from holding positions in financial institutions – plus fining him £1.8m – for “recklessly approving … two misleading statements about the nature of his relationship” with deceased sex offender Epstein.
Along with that fine, Mr Staley was reported to have lost out on nearly £18m in bonuses from Barclays, which he led after working with JPMorgan Chase, where, the FCA say, he had close ties with Epstein.
“We consider that he misled both the FCA and the Barclays board about the nature of his relationship with Mr Epstein,” said a statement from the FCA at the time, with the American banker acknowledging his connection to Epstein prior to joining Barclays but telling the British bank their last communication was “well before he joined” them, in 2015.
Mr Staley will also be aiming to show he did not deliberately mislead Barclays or the FCA over the matter, reports the Financial Times. Additionally, he argues the punishment was beyond the seriousness of the FCA’s initial enquiry to Barclays.
The FCA has cited emails sent from the former Barclays chief to the now-deceased Epstein as showing he did so, which discuss details of deals and fraudster Madoff. The regulator also alleges Mr Staley was still in contact with Epstein shortly before joining Barclays, and even beyond that through emails sent by his daughter, Alexa.
The FCA says it has a glut of emails, totalling over 1,000 between the two men across a four-year period with unexplained terms, reported the FT after Staley’s resignation from Barclays in 2021, whose own statement said “the investigation makes no findings that Mr Staley saw, or was aware of, any of Mr Epstein’s alleged crimes”.
One such email regularly referenced was the “Snow White” exchange. “That was fun. Say hi to Snow White,” Mr Staley wrote in July 2010, to which Epstein replied “[W]hat character would you like next?” “Beauty and the Beast,” was Mr Staley’s reply.
A pre-trial filing by the FCA says that Mr Staley “could and should have avoided the inclusion of the misleading statements” in the original letter Barclays sent to the regulator.
“Staley had the opportunity to correct these misleading statements in the letter, but failed to do so,” it added.
