Probe into £6m Barclays boss as he grovels over link to Epstein
THE boss of Barclays is being investigated over whether he fully declared his close relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
Jes Staley, the bank’s chief executive, previously backed the flagship business initiative of Prince Andrew, who has also been dragged into the scandal surrounding the American paedophile billionaire.
Two financial regulators will examine whether £6 million-a-year Mr Staley admitted the extent of his friendship with Epstein when he took over at Barclays in 2015.
Epstein was an important client of the bank boss when the latter held high-profile roles at Wall Street banking giant J P Morgan between 2000 and 2013.
Boston-born Mr Staley, 63, stayed in touch with Epstein after he was convicted of soliciting a child for prostitution in 2008. He even visited the paedophile at his Florida office, where Epstein had been allowed to go on work release during his 13-month jail term.
And just months before he joined
Barclays, Mr Staley enjoyed a sailing trip with his wife Debora to Epstein’s private Caribbean retreat, which has been dubbed ‘paedo island’.
By the time he became one of the most powerful banking bosses in the UK, civil cases filed by Epstein’s victims in the US were mounting up.
One case involved the claim by Epstein sex slave Virginia Roberts, who said she was forced to have sex with Andrew on three separate occasions. The Duke of York has always denied the allegations.
Until recently Barclays sponsored Pitch@ Palace, a charity founded by the prince to promote entrepreneurship. The bank severed ties with the initiative following Andrew’s disastrous TV interview in November.
Yesterday Barclays revealed that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) had launched a joint investigation in December into Mr Staley’s relationship with Epstein. The FCA decided to open the investigation after J P Morgan supplied it with a cache of emails, including notes exchanged between Mr Staley and Epstein which suggested their relationship was friendlier than the Barclays boss had admitted, the Financial Times reported. In a grovelling conference call to journalists, Mr Staley said: ‘I thought I knew him well and I didn’t. For sure with hindsight of what we all know now, I deeply regret having had any relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.’
Mr Staley was asked why he continued his association with the paedophile for seven years after his conviction for child prostitution – and for two years after Epstein was dropped as a client of J P Morgan. Avoiding the question, he replied: ‘Contact became much less frequent in 2013 and 2014, and it tapered off in 2015 totally.’
He said the final contact with Epstein had taken place in the ‘middle to late 2015’, just months after he sailed his yacht, the Bequia, with his wife in April to Little St James, Epstein’s private Caribbean island. Four years later the paedophile was found dead in his New York prison cell at the age of 66 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking charges.
The investigation into Mr Staley will focus on how transparent he had been over his relationship with Epstein to Barclays.
Mr Staley added: ‘I feel very comfortable that, going all the way back to 2015, I have been very transparent.’
Barclays said it had conducted an internal review and had no concerns over the way its chief executive had described his dealings with the convicted sex offender.
‘I thought I knew him well and I didn’t’