Ex-Barclays boss’ reputation ‘irretrievably damaged’ by City ban, tribunal told

Ex-Barclays chief executive Jes Staley’s reputation was “irretrievably damaged” by the financial watchdog’s decision to ban him from top jobs in the City over his ties to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, a tribunal has been told.

Mr Staley told the Upper Tribunal that he was “professionally fairly close” to Epstein during his career in the finance industry, but said they were “not personal friends”.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) fined Mr Staley £1.8 million and banned him from holding senior roles in the financial sector in 2023 after finding he did not disclose “uncomfortable truths about his close personal relationship” with Epstein.

It found Mr Staley acted “recklessly” by approving a letter sent by Barclays to the FCA stating that he and Epstein were not close, and that they ceased contact “well before” he joined the bank in 2015.

The former bank chief is now challenging the watchdog over its findings and the ban, and began giving evidence at the tribunal on Monday.

In a witness statement, he said: “My reputation has also been irretrievably damaged, not least because of the publicity which has been attendant upon the FCA’s actions.”

He continued: “The FCA took the most serious and drastic step that it could, ending my long and distinguished career in financial services, and destroying my reputation without first asking me for an explanation for any perceived discrepancy.”

Mr Staley, who ran Barclays from 2015 to 2021, acted as a private banker to Epstein during his time at JP Morgan, where he worked for more than 30 years.

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.

Leigh-Ann Mulcahy KC, for the FCA, previously told the tribunal Mr Staley described Epstein in emails as like “family” and one of his “deepest” and “most cherished” friends.

She also said that between March 2016 and February 2017, Mr Staley’s daughter, Alexa Staley, was used as an intermediary.

But Mr Staley claims he had no contact with Epstein when he joined Barclays in December 2015 and described their relationship as “predicated upon business”.

In his statement, he said: “I would describe my relationship with Mr Epstein as being ‘professionally fairly close’.

“It was a professional relationship which was predicated upon business. We were not personal friends, nor were we personally close.

“Relationships evolve and are not static, but when I described my relationship with Jeffrey Epstein to Barclays and to the FCA, I believed this was the most accurate and helpful definition.

“I have never attempted to conceal my relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, nor have I ever been evasive about it.

“If I had known it was to be found that he was a prolific sex offender, I would not have had a relationship with him at all, let alone valued the advice he gave to my daughter.”

Mr Staley continued that he was “made aware that my daughter was occasionally contacted by Mr Epstein after I ended my association with him at the time of my appointment with Barclays”.

He said: “I have no reason to doubt that my daughter answered Mr Epstein’s enquiries based on responses that I appear to have made to her, and which were probably made by me as a matter of basic courtesy.”

Epstein previously introduced Mr Staley’s daughter, who was an aspiring physicist, to influential scientists, according to court documents.

“As a father, I was deeply appreciative of Mr Epstein’s assistance in supporting my daughter’s educational achievements as a result of these introductions,” he said.

“This motivated some of the correspondence from me to him in which I described him as a ‘friend’ and in endearing terms, and conveyed my wife’s sentiments to the same effect.”

Mr Staley described Epstein as an “individual with remarkable connections” worldwide and a “valuable source of information”, naming contacts such as Bill Clinton and Bill Gates, and he said that the financier introduced him to Peter Mandelson.

In his statement, he confirmed that he visited Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean in April 2015 for a sailing holiday with his wife and family, which involved a journey on Epstein’s private plane.

Mr Staley said he recollected that he “last saw Mr Epstein on April 2015, subject only to a possible business visit to his Manhattan town house in July 2015”.

Referring to the July visit, he said he had “no independent recollection of this whatsoever” and so could not say for certain whether it happened.

The hearing before Upper Tribunal Judge Tim Herrington and UT members Martin Fraenkel and Cathy Farquharson is due to conclude in April.