Former Barclays boss Jes Staley has begun a legal bid to overturn a ban from the UK’s financial services industry, related to his links to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) proposed the leadership ban in 2023, alongside a £1.8m fine, finding that Mr Staley had made misleading statements about his relationship with Epstein in correspondence with the watchdog.
Mr Staley’s barrister told the Upper Tribunal in a written statement that Mr Staley, who had quit his job at Barclays in 2021 to contest the FCA’s findings, admits a “close professional relationship” with Epstein but denies they were friends.
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Their association dates back to a time when Epstein was a client of JPMorgan Chase’s private bank, which Mr Staley headed before taking the role at Barclays in 2015.
The FCA’s ruling related to the contents of a letter sent by the then Barclays chairman in 2019, but reviewed by Mr Staley, which summarised the depth of the two men’s ties in response to a request for “assurance” from the regulator.
The watchdog determined it contained two misleading statements over their relationship, namely over how close they were and that Mr Staley’s last contact with Epstein was “well before he joined Barclays in 2015”.
The FCA further found that they maintained contact through Mr Staley’s daughter up to at least February 2017.
Its barrister, Leigh-Ann Mulcahy KC, said in her written opening submission that he acted “recklessly and without integrity” by allowing the letter to be sent with the misleading statements.
“Mr Staley has consistently mis-stated the nature of his relationship with Mr Epstein, in particular downplaying the
closeness and extent of their connection, and the time they ceased contact,” she added.
The FCA’s case includes more than 1,000 emails between the pair, some provided by JPMorgan and
others from Epstein’s estate, in which Staley was said to have described their friendship as “profound” and referred to Epstein as “family”.
“While the origin of the relationship was professional, it evolved into a personal relationship,” the barrister said.
Epstein killed himself in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
In addition to his proposed FCA fine, Mr Staley missed out on pay and bonus awards above £18m after he left Barclays under a cloud.
Mr Staley’s barrister, Robert Smith KC, argued the letter sent by Barclays chair Nigel Higgins to the FCA was “intended to achieve only one purpose, which was to inform the (FCA) that neither Mr Staley nor Barclays had had any
knowledge of or involvement in Mr Epstein’s unlawful conduct”.
He added that the letter was not meant to give a full account of their interactions.
Mr Staley is expected to give evidence to the hearing in London next week.
The Upper Tribunal is also expected to hear from Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey, who was in charge of the FCA between 2016 and 2020.
