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The former chief executive of Barclays Jes Staley took a “chance” in lying to the UK regulator about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, amid fears that being truthful could end his career and fuel potential lawsuits by victims of the jailed paedophile, a court has heard.
The allegations were made by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) during closing statements for the high-profile case at the upper tribunal in London on Wednesday.
The case is part of Staley’s efforts to overturn a lifetime ban from the UK’s financial sector, prompted by the FCA’s claims that he lied about the depth of his ties to the now-deceased sex offender in 2019.
The FCA’s lawyer, Leigh-Ann Mulcahy, told the court on Wednesday that Staley had a “clear motive to mislead” the regulator about the relationship, which he “had been mischaracterising since 2015”. This was, in part, to protect his career, she said.
But there was also a “US litigation risk”, given Staley had been contacted by American attorney Brad Edwards days after Epstein’s arrest over child-sex trafficking on 6 July 2019.
Edwards emailed Staley’s Barclays inbox on 12 July, saying: “I represent numerous of Mr Epstein’s victims. I need to speak with you urgently. Please email me a number to reach you on tomorrow and a time when you are available,” documents submitted to the court showed. Edwards chased up three weeks later: “This is an urgent personal matter. I would appreciate receiving a call from you or your attorney/representative today.”
Epstein died in a US prison on 10 August 2019 while awaiting trial. The FCA contacted Barclays days later asking for further information about Staley’s ties to Epstein, as media scrutiny of their relationship intensified.
“The reality is that Mr Staley faced an unpleasant dilemma: either he told Barclays the truth, most likely ending his career and giving rise to further investigation immediately, or he could take the chance of misleading the authority,” FCA documents submitted to the court said. “He chose the latter.”
A letter sent by Barclays to the FCA in October 2019, said “Jes has confirmed to us that he did not have a close relationship with Mr Epstein” and that their “last contact with Mr Epstein was well before he joined Barclays in 2015”.
The FCA says its evidence, which includes 1,200 emails from Staley’s former employer JP Morgan, proves the pair had a close personal relationship, were in direct contact until his appointment and stayed in touch via Staley’s daughter until at least 2017.
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“He hopes you are well and that after a year with b he wants to visit,” one email from Staley’s daughter to Epstein in September 2016 said. Mulcahy said this was inconsistent with suggestions that Staley wanted to “cut off contact for ever”.
Staley argues he was transparent with Barclays that he had a “professionally close” relationship with Epstein. He also said he took Barclays’ legal guidance that “contact” was meant to refer to their last in-person meeting. Staley says he last visited Epstein on his private Caribbean island in April 2015.
However, emails suggested the pair might have met even later, on 9 July 2015, the FCA said. Staley said he could not recall if the meeting took place.
