Unlock the Editor’s Digest without spending a dime
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favorite tales on this weekly publication.
JPMorgan Chase claimed to the UK monetary regulator that it had proof indicating former Barclays chief govt Jes Staley was concerned in criminality related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s convictions, a London courtroom was informed.
The revelation highlights how Staley’s downfall on the helm of considered one of Britain’s greatest banks was triggered by the actions of the most important Wall Avenue lender, his former employer.
Staley had a high-flying 30-year profession at JPMorgan however he later fell out badly with the US financial institution led by Jamie Dimon.
JPMorgan supplied in 2019 at hand over a cache of more than 1,200 emails between Staley and Epstein allegedly undermining assurances Barclays made in a letter that yr to the UK regulator. The letter mentioned that the connection between the 2 males was “not shut”.
Mark Steward, former head of enforcement on the FCA, informed a tribunal on Friday that JPMorgan had alleged to the watchdog that the paperwork it was providing “indicated involvement of Mr Staley in prison exercise associated to Mr Epstein’s trafficking convictions”.
Steward didn’t in the end agree with JPMorgan’s evaluation, in response to his witness assertion.
He informed the courtroom he was conscious that the FCA “doesn’t make the case in these proceedings that Mr Staley was concerned in or conscious of the prison actions of Mr Epstein and it doesn’t ask the tribunal to deduce that he was primarily based on these paperwork”.
His proof got here on the fifth day of an attraction the place Staley is trying to overturn a ban and fine by the FCA for “recklessly” permitting Barclays to mislead the regulator over the character of his relationship with one of many worst sexual predators in latest reminiscence.
Andrew Bailey, who was the FCA boss on the time and is now governor of the Financial institution of England, additionally gave proof on Friday.
He wrote in his accompanying witness assertion that an FCA official knowledgeable him in 2019 that JPMorgan had mentioned it had “discovered paperwork suggesting some potential impropriety within the relationship between Mr Staley and Mr Epstein”.
The central financial institution governor mentioned the US financial institution made an “uncommon request” for the FCA to compel it at hand over paperwork referring to Staley’s relationship with Epstein.
The content material of the paperwork “was regarding because it advised that Mr Staley might have misled Barclays and thereby misled the authority”, Bailey wrote in his witness assertion.
Epstein was discovered useless in a jail cell in 2019 whereas awaiting trial on fees of trafficking underage girls. Epstein beforehand pleaded responsible to procuring a minor for prostitution in 2008.
“There was such a disjunction . . . between the important thing sentence within the letter in regards to the relationship and the proof that we had acquired from JPMorgan . . . the investigation was going to need to unravel this,” Bailey mentioned when requested by the FCA’s barrister Leigh-Ann Mulcahy KC about his response to the proof offered by the US financial institution.
The paperwork offered by JPMorgan additionally included a spreadsheet exhibiting two funds by Epstein to “a lady whose identification has been redacted”, Steward informed the courtroom earlier.
JPMorgan informed the FCA that the funds had been made on January 8, 2009, and August 31, 2009, and the US financial institution “thought-about there could also be a connection” between the funds and particular emails between Staley and Epstein, he added.
One e mail mentioned a go to by Staley to Epstein’s workplace in Palm Seashore in January 2009. In one other e mail change in August 2009, Epstein requested Staley if he wanted something whereas in London and he replied “yep”.
Staley’s lawyer mentioned that her consumer declined to touch upon what the US financial institution informed the FCA. JPMorgan additionally declined to remark.
JPMorgan sued Staley, claiming he misled the financial institution by internally vouching for the late intercourse offender, and the 2 reached a confidential settlement in 2023.
After Staley joined Barclays in 2015, he poached so many former senior executives from JPMorgan that it created dangerous blood between the 2 establishments. Dimon known as the then Barclays chair, John McFarlane, to complain in regards to the defections, the Monetary Occasions previously reported.
Defectors from JPMorgan to Barclays included CS Venkatakrishnan, who was employed because the British financial institution’s chief danger officer and took over as CEO after Staley give up in 2021.
