Jes Staley, the former chief executive of Barclays, has been banned from holding senior management roles in the City after a tribunal upheld a Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) fine of £1.8 million. The ruling, delivered on Thursday, stems from Staley's close relationship with convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which the FCA said Barclays had misled the regulator about.
Court documents from a two-week tribunal in March revealed the extent of the relationship. Staley first met Epstein in 1999 on the recommendation of JP Morgan's then chief executive, Sandy Warner, who felt Epstein, already a client, was someone the newly appointed head of the private bank should know. The pair quickly developed a 'fairly close professional relationship', with Staley holidaying on Epstein's private island, flying on his private plane, and gaining access to a portfolio of ministers, entrepreneurs and royalty.
Staley maintained that Epstein was never part of his inner circle and that he had no knowledge of Epstein's crimes. However, the FCA investigation uncovered 1,200 emails from JP Morgan that convinced the regulator the pair were close friends and stayed in touch via Staley's daughter for years after he joined Barclays. Staley's appeal against the ban was rejected by judges, who ruled in the FCA's favour.
The tribunal also heard that Staley visited Epstein after his 2006 arrest for soliciting prostitution from a minor, and again in 2009 when Epstein was on a prison work release programme. Staley said he reported the visit to JP Morgan, which was reviewing whether to keep Epstein as a client. Epstein was found dead in his prison cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on child sex trafficking charges.
