The former chief executive of Barclays on Thursday was fined by the U.K.’s financial regulator and banned from ever having a senior executive role over his disclosures relating to Jeffrey Epstein.
The Financial Conduct Authority fined Jes Staley £1.8 million ($2.2 million) and banned him from holding a senior management or significant influence function in the financial services industry.
Epstein died by suicide in a federal jail in 2019, awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. Epstein’s relationships with several prominent financial and political leaders have been scrutinized.
The regulator said Staley “recklessly approved” a letter sent by Barclays
BARC,
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to the FCA which contained two misleading statements over his Epstein relationship.
The letter, sent in 2019, had said Staley didn’t have a close relationship with Epstein, when in emails Staley called Epstein one of his deepest and most cherished friends. In fact, there were more than 1,100 emails between the men between 2008 and 2012, the FCA said.
The FCA said there were at least visits by Staley to Epstein’s island in the Virgin Islands as well as to other properties. Staley attended an Epstein birthday dinner in Palm Beach, Fla., and saw Epstein on work release during his prison sentence over procuring prostitution from someone under the age of 18.
The letter also said Staley ceased contact with Epstein well before he joined Barclays, but he was in contact in the days leading up to his CEO appointment in 2015.
“While Mr Staley did not draft the letter there was no excuse for his failure to correct the misleading statements when he was the only person at Barclays who knew the full extent of his personal relationship with Mr Epstein and the specific timings of his contact with him. The FCA has found that Mr Staley was aware of the risk that his association with Mr Epstein posed to his career,” the regulator said.
Staley was previously a senior executive at JPMorgan, which recently agreed to pay $75 million to settle Epstein-related litigation by the U.S. Virgin Islands. JPMorgan separately reached a settlement with Staley.
Staley hasn’t commented publicly on the FCA’s fine and ban, but the FCA release does contain his side of the story. He said the letter sent by Barclays was focused on Epstein’s alleged criminal activities and whether Staley had participated in, or known about them.
“The senior individuals at Barclays who were engaged in the response to the Authority’s enquiry understood and accepted that Mr Staley’s relationship with Mr Epstein had at times been close, but that it had not been anything other than a professional one and that Mr Staley had been entirely unaware of the unlawful activities for which Mr Epstein had been arrested in July 2019,” said the FCA document, of Staley’s representations to the regulator.
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