Ex-Barclays boss Jes Staley loses job ban tribunal case
Former Barclays boss Jes Staley has lost a legal challenge against a decision to ban him from top financial jobs in the UK over his links to convicted US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.Mr Staley was forced out in November 2021 after UK regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), found he had failed to accurately disclose the nature and length of his relationship with Epstein to the Barclays board and the FCA in 2019.He had been seeking to overturn the 2023 decision by the regulator to ban him and fine him £1.8m, arguing that he had "never attempted to conceal his relationship with Mr Epstein".London's Upper Tribunal dismissed the challenge on Thursday, but it lowered the fine to £1.1m.
During the hearing Mr Staley, who ran Barclays from 2015 to 2021, told the tribunal that he had a close professional association with Epstein, but not a close personal friendship.Epstein was found to have killed himself in 2019 while in prison awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. He was previously convicted in 2008 for soliciting sex from a minor and sentenced to 13 months in prison.Mr Staley told the tribunal he had no idea about Epstein's "monstrous activities".He said he was disappointed with the decision but welcomed the tribunal accepting that he was not dishonest."I have worked tirelessly for my prior employers for the entirety of my career," he said."I am proud of the support I gave to many individuals during that career and the strategy I developed to help Barclays when it faced immense challenges."
The case centred on a 2019 letter sent by Barclays chair Nigel Higgins to the FCA, which the regulator said contained two misleading statements: that Staley "did not have a close relationship" with Epstein and that their last contact was "well before he joined Barclays in 2015".The FCA said that although he did not draft it personally, Mr Staley had "recklessly" approved the letter.Mr Staley, however, told the tribunal both statements were accurate and that his "close business relationship" with Epstein diminished after he left his previous employer JPMorgan, where Epstein was once a client.Mr Staley had worked at the US investment bank for three decades, including heading up its asset and wealth management division.He said the last time he physically met Epstein was in April 2015.
Although Mr Staley said his relationship with Epstein was "not close", a cache of emails released by JPMorgan suggested the opposite.Email exchanges described time spent together at Epstein's properties in New York and on his private island in the US Virgin Islands, and showed Mr Staley had described Epstein as one of his "deepest" and "most cherished" friends.In a now infamous email thread Mr Staley remarked to Epstein: "That was fun, say 'Hi' to Snow White". Epstein replied: "What character would you like next?" To which Mr Staley responded: "Beauty and the beast!"In addition, the emails showed Mr Staley had been in contact with Epstein in the days leading up to his appointment as Barclays chief executive being announced on 28 October 2015.Mr Staley has consistently denied knowing anything about Epstein's crimes.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
25 minutes ago
- The Guardian
High flyer to pariah: the saga of Epstein-linked banker Jes Staley
In 1999, the future Barclays chief executive Jes Staley was gearing up for his biggest job yet. As head of JP Morgan's private bank, he would be in charge of a sprawling team that managed money and investments for some of the world's richest people. Among them was the mysterious but well-connected billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, with whom he would quickly develop a 'fairly close professional relationship'. Staley was soon holidaying on Epstein's private island, flying on his private plane, and gaining access to an impressive portfolio of ministers, entrepreneurs and royalty. The relationship ended up bolstering Staley's profile on Wall Street and even connecting his daughter to senior figures at Ivy League universities. But it would also help to end his career. In July 2019 Epstein was arrested on child sex trafficking charges, accused of sexually exploiting and abusing dozens of girls at homes in Manhattan and Palm Beach, Florida. Some victims were as young as 14, US prosecutors alleged. Epstein, who was in jail as he awaited trial, was found dead in his prison cell weeks later. The revelations about Epstein led to a media storm, bringing renewed attention to his former friends and business associates, including Staley. Barclays told the Financial Conduct Authority in October 2019 that the pair 'did not have a close relationship' and were last in contact 'well before' Staley took over as CEO four years earlier. But a subsequent FCA investigation, involving a cache of 1,200 emails from JP Morgan, convinced the regulator that it had been misled. The regulator alleged that the pair were indeed close friends and stayed in touch via Staley's daughter for years after he joined Barclays. It was not Staley's first run-in with the FCA, having been fined £642,000 for trying to unmask a whistleblower in 2018. But it was the final straw: he was banned from the holding senior management roles in the City in 2023, leading to him lose about £18m worth of pay. The 68-year-old fought back in an appeal this spring, arguing that he had always been transparent with Barclays and had followed internal legal advice on the letter's phrasing, which was meant to emphasise that he had no knowledge of Epstein's crimes. Judges on Thursday ruled in the FCA's favour, upholding the lifetime City ban. March's two-week tribunal hearing in London also gave the first public account of Epstein's role in Staley's life. This is what the court heard. The pair did not meet by chance, but on the recommendation of JP Morgan's then chief executive, Douglas 'Sandy' Warner, who felt that Epstein – already a client – was someone the newly appointed head of the private bank should know. The two men 'got on well', according to Staley's lawyers, and Epstein's career-boosting potential quickly became clear. He would refer wealthy friends to Staley, many of whom turned into JP Morgan clients. The pair occasionally socialised, Staley said, explaining that he would sometimes swing by Epstein's home in Manhattan for a drink or dinner. And, from 2005, he took his family on the first of a handful of trips to Epstein's private Caribbean island, Little St James. But Staley was adamant that Epstein was never part of his inner circle, was never invited to the family home, any 'milestone birthdays', or 'personal meals in restaurants'. Staley said he had few personal friends and remains a loner. 'From what I recall, Jes didn't have very many friends,' his former chief of staff Sasha Wiggins told the court in March. And Staley said parts of Epstein's life always remained a mystery. 'I really didn't know how much money he had,' Staley said. 'What his background was, was always sort of shrouded.' But by 2006, the mask started to slip when Epstein was arrested after Florida police were tipped off that he was recruiting young girls for massages and sexual encounters. He pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor and in 2008 he was sentenced to 18 months in jail. Staley stayed in contact, though, and visited Epstein after his indictment. He said Epstein did not deny that he solicited a prostitute, but maintained that he thought the girls were over 18. 'Obviously he lied to me,' Staley told the court in March. He again visited Epstein in around 2009, when he was on a prison work release programme in Florida. Staley said he reported the visit to JP Morgan, which was reviewing whether to keep Epstein as a client. But emails suggest he had been leaning on the imprisoned Epstein for advice throughout the financial crisis, writing in October 2008: 'I am dealing with the Fed on an idea to solve things. I need a smart friend to help me think through this stuff. Can I get you out for a weekend to help me (are they listening?)' The court heard that Staley turned to Epstein to help connect his daughter – a burgeoning physics major – with scientists and senior professors at Ivy League universities. The financier, who Staley referred to as 'Uncle Jeffrey', would later be invited to her graduation in 2015. Staley stressed that he did not then know of Epstein's crimes. 'Mr Staley said to me once: 'Why would I have introduced my wife and daughters to Mr Epstein if I thought he was a paedophile?'' Wiggins told the court. When Epstein was released on house arrest in July 2009, Staley was one of the four people he emailed to say: 'Free and home.' Staley replied: 'I toast your courage !!!!!' But more cryptic messages between the two stirred the most controversy, including an exchange about Disney princesses in July 2010. 'That was fun. Say hi to Snow White,' Staley wrote. 'What character would you like next?' Epstein asked, to which Staley replied: 'Beauty and the Beast.' 'Well one side is available,' Epstein responded. Staley told the court he was not able to explain the exchange. Months earlier, in September 2009, Epstein emailed a woman to say: 'Jes staley is staying at the berkeley hotel in London tonight.' Staley said he could not recall the reason behind the message. That year Staley's career took another leap, with his promotion to lead JP Morgan's investment bank. Even the chief executive, Jamie Dimon, was singing his praises, telling Fortune magazine: 'Jes has impeccable character and integrity.' The new gig meant Epstein was no longer a direct client. But that did not end their relationship, or Staley's effusive messages. In November 2009, Staley detoured from a work trip to visit Epstein's ranch in New Mexico, replete with a 26,700-square-foot mansion, private airstrip, and seven-bay heated garage. He emailed Epstein in thanks: 'So when all hell breaks lose [sic], and the world is crumbling, I will come here, and be at peace. Presently, I'm in the hot tub with a glass of white wine. This is an amazing place … I owe you much. And I deeply appreciate our friendship. I have few so profound.' In December, months after Epstein's release, the pair finally found time to meet in person. 'I realize the danger in sending this email. But is [sic] was great to be able, today, to give you, in New York City, a long heartfelt hug. To my friend, Thanks. Jes.' At times, their emails were more explicit: discussing sex scandals and lovers. One message, sent from a debutante ball that Staley attended in November 2010, told Epstein that Staley had seen a woman – 'your lover,' Staley said, 'she says u slept with her!!' Epstein separately sent photos, one of which was of a woman in a low-cut ballgown. 'You were with Larry, and i had to put up with …' Epstein wrote. When FCA lawyers suggested that this interaction was a sign that he and Epstein were 'personally close', Staley suggested that such behaviour was not uncommon between people who were 'professionally close – you know, if you've ever worked on a trading floor on Wall Street'. Staley said there were also parts of his life he kept from Epstein, including having sex with a member of Epstein's staff. 'Oftentimes I would go to Epstein's apartment and he would be late, and she and I got the chance to know each other.' This led to sexual intercourse, he said, 'much to my embarrassment today'. The former banker, who has a wife and two daughters, said the confession came at a personal cost. 'I have been honest such that I have put my marriage at risk … I have never shied away from telling the truth about all of this.' The date of the encounter was not disclosed in court, but the FCA revealed that Epstein's former employee had 'carved' Staley out of a settlement she had reached with Epstein's estate. 'I was not aware of that,' Staley told the court. Despite the allegedly secret encounter, Epstein and Staley would send messages declaring their close ties, referring to each other as family. In one exchange in March 2011, Epstein writes: 'Told you −−−− family.' Staley replied with one word: 'Family'. Behind the scenes, Epstein's banking relationship with JP Morgan was starting to unravel. The bank was considering dumping Epstein as a client but was careful about breaching the issue with Staley, saying they were friends. 'He needs to understand the potential backlash to the firm given all the work done to root out clients involved in human trafficking,' an internal memo said. Staley tried to convince the bank's top lawyer to 'hear [Epstein] out', according to a JP Morgan meeting note. He also revealed to Epstein that his transactions were under review. Staley admitted to sharing internal information with Epstein but denied having pushed the bank to keep him as a client. Panic set in by September 2009, when Epstein told Staley that a 'family meeting was required'. Epstein was concerned about an 'abusive reporter', and instructed Staley on how to respond: 'I think your response should be [that] all of the incidents that they raise happened a decade ago, I paid my debt and like everyone else should be given another chance.' Epstein said he had been 'unaware of the full heat that you have taken as a result of our friendship', adding: 'I'm sorry.' The financier hired a London lobbyist for a 2012 campaign to make Staley Barclay's chief executive, dubbed 'Project Jes'. In emails the lobbyist claimed he hoped to convince top-level policymakers, including George Osborne, who was chancellor, and Mervyn King, the Bank of England governor, to support the US banker. Staley said he never knew about the push. Barclays ultimately installed its own head of retail and business banking, Antony Jenkins, whose ousting three years later led to Staley's leadership. In early 2013 Staley left JP Morgan, moving to the hedge fund Blue Mountain Capital. At this point, Staley claimed, his relationship with Epstein started to decline. But the FCA alleged that their communication did not wither, pointing to a string of emails in early 2013 in which the pair discussed dinner plans, new work numbers and planned meet-ups. Staley also kept up an annual tradition of emailing Epstein on New Year's Eve. The declarations of friendship continued in January 2015, when Staley told Epstein: 'The strength of a Greek army was that its core held shoulder to shoulder, and would not flee or break, no matter the threat. That is us.' That year, Epstein was back in the media's crosshairs. An anonymous woman had filed a lawsuit alleging she was repeatedly sexually abused by Epstein between 1999 and 2002, and that he had loaned her out to rich and influential men. By that April, Staley had what he says was his last in-person meeting with Epstein, having again taken his family to visit the financier's private island. 'Thanks for the flight and thanks for the lunch. Your place is crazy, and special … I count u as a deep friend. The girls seemed to enjoy the sail. All the best Jes.' Within months, Staley was taking another stab at the Barclays job, and kept Epstein abreast of developments. Weeks before the appointment, Staley emailed: 'Cross your toes !!!' Staley was back in touch days before receiving his Barclays contract: 'We're very close.' The British tabloids, however, were circling, pouncing on another prominent figure with ties to a convicted sex offender. News of Prince Andrew's relationship with Epstein had caused a media frenzy as early as 2011, years before a disaster BBC interview that led to the prince being forced to step back from public duties in 2019. Days before Staley was confirmed as Barclays' new boss, the Mail on Sunday was chasing up claims that Epstein lobbied Barclays to hire Staley in both 2012 and 2015. Epstein forwarded the newspaper's queries to Staley, who later replied: 'Ok. I'm going to play is [sic] simple. I've known you as a client. I will tell B tomorrow. Let me know if they say something else. But stay away from them. I'm fine.' The article was published with the headline: 'Andrew's billionaire paedophile friend secretly backed new Barclays boss for job'. Staley said he cut contact with Epstein days later, following 'strong advice' from Barclays. 'I telephoned Mr Epstein and told him that we could not ever again have communication, which he accepted. The relationship ended there. I have had no communication with him since then,' Staley told the court. There is no evidence of direct contact between the two men after October 2015, but the FCA alleged they stayed in touch via Staley's daughter until at least February 2017. Emails show that Epstein asked Staley's daughter to ask the newly installed chief executive's opinion on other bankers, tried to connect Staley with royalty in the Middle East, and to ask whether Staley was interested in a post with the US Treasury. Staley said he did not recall any of those conversations, and he did not realise at the time that his daughter and Epstein were still corresponding. The tribunal on Thursday raised concerns in its judgment about Staley's evidence, saying he 'could be inconsistent in his answers when he felt that it would suit his case', adding that he had 'shown no remorse for his conduct'. Judges have sided with the FCA, upholding its City ban and scuppering efforts to restore his reputation. And while the tribunal reduced his penalty by £1.8m to £1.1m, it reflected pay he lost from Barclays as a result of the FCA ruling. It is not clear how much Staley has paid in legal costs trying to challenge the UK regulator. Staley said in a statement: 'I am disappointed by the outcome and the time it took for this process to play out – that was entirely beyond my control. As the tribunal accepted, I was never dishonest. It took years of arguing with the authority and until November 2024 to establish that fact and it took more time for the financial penalty to be reduced by 40%. 'I have worked tirelessly for my prior employers for the entirety of my career. I am proud of the support I gave to many individuals during that career and the strategy I developed to help Barclays when it faced immense challenges. The tribunal recognised what they described as 'my long and distinguished career'.'
BBC News
30 minutes ago
- BBC News
Woman arrested after child hit by car in Market Bosworth
A woman has been arrested after a child was struck by a car in said they were called to Station Road in Market Bosworth at 15:16 BST on Thursday .Officers confirmed a boy was taken to hospital but his injuries were not believed to be life-threatening or life-changing. His age has not been shared.A 45-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of failing to stop at the scene of a collision and failing to provide a specimen and is in custody.
The Guardian
30 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Ronald Clarke obituary
In 1976, Ronald Clarke, who has died from cancer aged 84, published a paper entitled Crime As Opportunity. Written with three colleagues at the Home Office research unit, it overturned the conventional view that crime is simply caused by 'criminals' and laid the groundwork for what would become known as situational crime prevention. The concept – that opportunity makes the thief – was hardly new, but Ron's practical application of the idea was revolutionary. Rather than focusing on the offender, he turned attention to the offence – why, where, how and when – and how links in the chain which led to crime could be removed. As with treating different illnesses, the cures were specific to their contexts: putting high value items behind the shop counter; installing window locks or better car security; improving sightlines; making stolen items traceable; or introducing cash boxes which sprayed indelible dye over money and thieves. All these remedies worked far more effectively than relying on arrests after the event. These insights were reinforced in 1988 when, with his Home Office colleague Pat Mayhew, Ron investigated the steep decline in suicides in England and Wales between 1963 and 1975. The falls were happening as traditional coal gas containing carbon monoxide was replaced by North Sea gas, which is mostly methane. This could mean only one thing: when attempted suicides failed, many people did not try again. This prompted a raft of measures such as limiting the sale of over-the-counter drugs such as paracetamol. Ron and his followers went on to show that improved home security did not simply displace crime to neighbouring houses; on the contrary, it created a 'halo effect', lowering crime rates in the broader area. His ideas helped explain why crime levels in general surged until the 1990s before falling across the industrialised world, in step with improved security. He also anticipated shifts in criminal behaviour: as physical crimes declined, cybercrime and fraud rose, often committed by different types of people. The burglar did not become the hacker; rather, new crimes attracted new actors. His work drew little support from mainstream criminology, since it defied traditional beliefs that crime is mostly caused by a discrete class of inherently deviant individuals. He established that our immediate circumstances dictate our actions much more than our predispositions. Some people would always behave badly, but the ebb and flow of crime is dictated by how many others found it easy to break the rules. Thus to a large degree we can predict and design out many types of crime, and to some extent even suicide. (Suicide had itself ceased to be a crime in England and Wales in 1961, and in Northern Ireland in 1966. It was never a crime in Scotland.) The starting point for his work had been medical, with an MA in clinical psychology (1965) at the Maudsley hospital in south-east London. For his PhD, Ron moved to social problems, investigating why Britain's network of training schools for delinquent boys had such high rates of absconding. He gave the boys batteries of psychological tests but found little difference between those who fled and those who did not. Instead he discovered hotspots of absconding at some of the detention centres. It was this insight that would inspire his later work. In 1968 Ron became a research officer at the Home Office, where, together with his colleague Derek Cornish, he set out to identify which rehabilitative methods were most effective in reforming young offenders. The answer, surprisingly, was none. Their randomised trial showed no difference in recidivism between the different correctional approaches. In fact boys who went through any form of rehabilitation were just as likely to reoffend as boys who had no therapy at all. At first this led to disillusionment with randomised trials, but increasingly Ron came to realise that criminology often used self-serving methodologies, and that the dominant sociological explanations were largely without foundation. These heretical views did little to endear him to his peers as he rose through the ranks at the Home Office, eventually supervising research in an era when the department was by far the country's largest employer of criminologists. Ron's scepticism of conventional wisdom extended to crime statistics themselves. Under his leadership, the British Crime Survey was launched in the early 1980s. It revealed that actual victimisation rates were often double those reported to police, and that official crime figures sometimes moved in opposite directions from lived experiences. Today, the renamed Crime Survey for England and Wales is regarded by the Office for National Statistics as the most reliable indicator of crime trends, while police figures have lost their designation as official statistics. In 1984 Ron was recruited to the US, joining Temple University in Philadelphia, and in 1987 went to Rutgers University, New Jersey, as dean of the school of criminal justice. Although he published prodigiously, as Ronald V Clarke, and was feted by a growing and increasingly international band of scholars, he always felt marginalised by mainstream criminology, with its focus on offenders rather than exploring ways to cut offending. He found his natural home in the emerging discipline of crime science – a new practical and cross-disciplinary approach that I had conceived out of frustration with ideological and theory-driven criminology. Ron's work had helped inspire the notion in the late 1990s, together with that of Prof Ken Pease, who had been working along similar lines, and later the Metropolitan police commissioner John Stevens and Gloria Laycock, Ron's successor at the Home Office. In 2001 crime science in turn found its first academic home in the Jill Dando Institute at University College London. Ron was a visiting professor there, and thereafter preferred to call himself a crime scientist rather than a criminologist. He had already stepped down as head of department at Rutgers in 1998, but continued teaching, research and advising the police. In 2002 he helped create the US-based Center for Problem-Oriented Policing, providing guidance to officers for cutting crime, and was its associate director until his death. When in his last years he eased away from full-time work he pursued bird photography with the same intensity he had once brought to research, and turned his attention to encouraging students to tackle wildlife crime. Born in Tanganyika (now Tanzania), Ron was the middle of three children to a German mother, Barbara Gemuseus, a missionary dentist, and a British father, Henry Clarke, a highway engineer. At first he was more fluent in Swahili than English. After the family moved to Britain in the 1950s he went to Teignmouth grammar school, Devon, and took a psychology degree at the University of Bristol (1959-62). There he met Sheelagh Carter, a teacher. They married in 1966, and she survives him, along with their children, Henry, George and Marianne. Ronald Victor Gemuseus Clarke, crime scientist, born 24 April 1941; died 28 May 2025
