Epstein victim’s attacker ‘was ex Barclays boss’
... claims US bank as it sues him for millions over his relationship with late paedophile
A MAN accused of sexual assault in legal action brought by one of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims was last night claimed to be former Barclays boss Jes Staley. Mr Staley is the person the woman claims used ‘aggressive force in his sexual assault’ of her, American bank JP Morgan alleged in its own lawsuit. JP Morgan said the woman, who is identified as Jane Doe 1, was referring to Mr Staley when she talked about a ‘powerful financial executive’ in legal papers.
Jane Doe 1 claimed that the person said during a massage he had ‘Epstein’s permission to do what he wanted to her’.
She had not identified him ‘out of fear’ but now JP Morgan is pointing the finger at Mr Staley.
JP Morgan also wants Mr Staley to hand back all the money it paid him between 2006 to 2013. Based on banking industry standards, that could come to tens of millions of pounds.
Mr Staley, 66, was chief executive of JP Morgan’s exclusive private bank, which had Epstein as a client, until 2013. He became head of Barclays in 2015 and was forced out in 2021 over his links to Epstein. JP Morgan is facing allegations of turning a blind eye to Epstein’s operation in lawsuits filed by the government of the US Virgin Islands, where Epstein had an island, and Jane Doe 1.
The bank has now sued Mr Staley and said he should be ‘solely liable’ for any damages that would need to be paid out because he breached his duty of care as an executive.
JP Morgan’s filing references a passage in Jane Doe’s complaint which states: ‘During some of these massages Jane Doe 1 was sexually abused, by force... by Epstein’s friends whom she had been required to massage. At least one of Epstein’s friends used aggressive force in his sexual assault of her and informed Jane Doe 1 that he had Epstein’s permission to do what he wanted to her. Out of fear, Jane Doe 1 has still not named this powerful financial executive publicly.’
JP Morgan said in its new filing: ‘Upon information and belief, Staley is this person who she described as a “powerful financial executive” she had historically been afraid to identify.’ The allegation comes after a steady drip of damaging allegations have been made public about Mr Staley in legal cases against him.
But until now, the closest anyone has come to directly accusing Mr Staley was last month when it was claimed in the US Virgin Islands’ lawsuit that emails between him and Epstein ‘even suggest that Staley may have been involved in Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation’.
Between 2008 and 2012, Mr Staley exchanged about 1,200 emails with Epstein from his JP Morgan email account, it is claimed. The banker allegedly visited Epstein’s private island while the paedophile was in prison for having sex with underage girls. Mr Staley is accused of making suggestive references to Disney characters in the emails, including one from 2010 in which he says: ‘Say hi to Snow White’.
When Epstein asked which ‘character’ Mr Staley wanted next, he asked for ‘Beauty and the Beast’, to which Epstein said: ‘One is available.’ Mr Staley’s lawyer has said the emails were ‘innocuous’ and they were not using ‘code words’.
In its complaint, JP Morgan accuses Mr Staley of breach of fiduciary duty, among other claims.
The bank says that he ‘never disclosed to anyone at JP Morgan he was aware of or participated’ in Epstein’s sex trafficking ring.
Mr Staley ‘repeatedly abandoned the interests of JP Morgan in pursuit of his own personal interests and benefits and those of Epstein’, it is claimed. While the bank does not admit any liability, it says that Mr Staley ‘continuously breached’ his fiduciary duties to the company as part of his ‘outrageous’ conduct.
JP Morgan accuses him of ‘fraudulently concealing’ his ‘inappropriate conduct’ with Epstein that was ‘harmful to JP Morgan’s reputation’. Mr Staley is alleged to have provided misleading information to JP Morgan when ‘vouching for Epstein’s character and conduct’.
The lawsuit states the misdeeds continued from at least 2006 until Mr Staley left JP Morgan in 2013, during which time he was ‘protecting Epstein in the face of attempts by [the bank] to end the company’s relationship with Epstein’.
A lawyer for Mr Staley declined to comment. His legal representatives have previously strongly denied any wrongdoing and said he had no knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.
Epstein was found dead in 2019, in what was ruled a suicide, while awaiting trial for sexual abuse of minors and sex trafficking. Last June, his former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, 61, was sentenced to 20 years for trafficking minors for sex.
‘Afraid to identify’