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Ex-Barclays chief did not mislead FCA over Epstein relationship, tribunal told
Jes Staley is challenging the regulator’s previous findings.
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The former chief executive of Barclays did not attempt to mislead the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) over the nature of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, a tribunal has heard.
Jes Staley was fined more than £1.8 million and banned from holding senior roles in the financial sector by the watchdog in 2023 after it found he misled the regulator over the nature of his relationship with the paedophile financier.
In a letter to the FCA in 2019, reviewed by Mr Staley, Barclays claimed that he did not have a “close relationship” with Epstein and their last contact was “well before” he joined the bank in December 2015.
But the authority found that the letter was misleading and that Mr Staley acted “recklessly and without integrity” by allowing it to be sent, with its lawyers telling a tribunal on Monday that he and Epstein had a “friendship” and maintained contact through Mr Staley’s daughter up to at least February 2017.
Mr Staley is challenging the FCA’s findings and the ban at the Upper Tribunal in London, with a hearing told that there was “inherent improbability” that he would have tried to mislead the watchdog.
In written submissions, Robert Smith KC, for Mr Staley, said that his client “has never attempted to conceal his relationship with Mr Epstein” and that letter aimed to “assure the authority that neither Barclays nor Mr Staley had had any knowledge of or involvement in” Epstein’s criminal activities.
He said: “In stating, as the letter did, that Mr Staley’s relationship with Mr Epstein had not been ‘close’ its purpose was to convey the fact that the nature of the relationship was not one which could have resulted in Mr Staley becoming aware of Mr Epstein’s misconduct.”
Jeffrey Epstein died in prison in 2019 (US Department of Justice)
PA Media
He continued that while Mr Staley visited Epstein’s island on a sailing holiday in April 2015, these were not “circumstances in which Mr Staley would have become aware of what was now being alleged against Mr Epstein”.
He continued that it would be “entirely illogical” to conclude that Mr Staley would have approved the letter “if he believed that they were factually inaccurate or carried with them any risk that the authority might be misled by them”.
Mr Smith also said that Mr Staley “does not accept that the email correspondence passing between Mr Epstein and his daughter constituted contact between himself and Mr Epstein”, and that the pair’s relationship was “professionally close” and “firmly grounded in business”.
Mr Staley acted as a private banker to Epstein during his time at JP Morgan, where he worked for more than 30 years before joining Barclays, which he left in 2021.
Epstein was jailed for child sex offences in 2008 and was arrested again in 2019. He died in prison that year while awaiting trial for sex trafficking offences.
The FCA opposes Mr Staley’s case, with its barristers calling the fine “appropriate”.
In written submissions, Leigh-Ann Mulcahy KC, for the watchdog, said it contacted Barclays in August 2019 for an “assurance” that the bank’s board had “informed itself of and was comfortable regarding any association of Mr Staley or Barclays with Mr Epstein”.
In a letter written to the FCA, approved by Mr Staley, Barclays chairman Nigel Higgins said “Jes has confirmed to us that he did not have a close relationship with Mr Epstein” and that “Jes’ last contact with Mr Epstein was well before he joined Barclays in 2015”.
Ms Mulcahy said: “The authority’s case is that Mr Staley acted recklessly and without integrity by allowing the letter to be sent to the authority containing those two misleading statements.”
The barrister continued that emails showed Mr Staley describing Epstein as like “family” and one of his “deepest” and “most cherished” friends, and that between March 2016 and February 2017, Mr Staley’s daughter, Alexa Staley, was used as an intermediary.
In March 2016, Epstein emailed Ms Staley asking: “how’s dad doing?”, and after the US presidential election in November 2016, asked: “Could you ask your dad if he would like to be considered for treasury”.
She replied: “Spoke with him. He said not yet, but thanks. Alexa.”
Ms Mulcahy told the court that the FCA did not “seek to criticise Mr Staley for his choice of friendship” with Epstein and “is not seeking to establish any sort of guilt by association”.
She added the case was not about Epstein’s friendships with “other prominent individuals”.
But she said Mr Staley had “repeatedly mis-stated the extent of the relationship” with Epstein, which “evolved into a personal relationship”, and that he had “allowed an inaccurate picture to be presented” through the letter.
She said: “What he was not entitled to do was make false statements to the authority about his friendship when asked about it.”
Mr Staley, who previously said he “deeply regrets” his relationship with the disgraced financier, appeared at the tribunal on Monday and will give evidence later this month.
High-profile City figures are also set to give evidence, including the current Governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, who was the chief executive of the FCA between 2016 and 2020.
The hearing before Upper Tribunal Judge Tim Herrington and UT Members Martin Fraenkel and Cathy Farquharson is due to conclude in April.
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