Ex-barclays chief named in Epstein case
Former Barclays boss accused of helping to cover up disgraced financier’s sex-trafficking ring
The former chief executive of Barclays “personally observed” young women being abused by Jeffrey Epstein, the late paedophile financier, according to claims filed in a US lawsuit. Jes Staley, who was forced to resign from the top job at the British bank in 2021 following an investigation into his past ties to Epstein, was named in a claim filed in New York by one of Epstein’s victims and which relates to a time when he worked at JP Morgan.
THE former chief executive of Barclays “personally observed” young women being abused by the late paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, according to claims filed in a US lawsuit.
Jes Staley, who was forced to resign from the top job at the British lender in 2021 following a regulatory investigation into his past ties to Epstein, was named in a claim filed in New York by one of Epstein’s victims.
The woman, who is suing JP Morgan for allegedly facilitating her sexual abuse by Epstein, has claimed that Mr Staley “personally observed” young women being assaulted when he was head of private wealth at the Wall Street behemoth.
The lawsuit alleges that Mr Staley helped cover up the disgraced financier’s sex-trafficking ring while at JP Morgan. Under the pseudonym Jane Doe 1 to protect her identity, the woman is suing the bank, which managed Epstein’s money before his 2019 death in a Manhattan prison cell, claiming Mr Staley “was the key to making all of Epstein’s depraved dreams of sexual abuse and sex trafficking of countless young women possible”.
Boston-born Mr Staley, 66, was previously known to have visited the convicted sex offender while he was serving time for soliciting a minor in Florida in 2009 and then flew to Epstein’s private Caribbean island for a four-hour lunch just months before taking the top job at Barclays in 2015.
However, in the latest filing, Jane Doe 1 goes further with claims that Mr Staley visited Epstein at multiple homes, including at “the massage room” of his New York townhouse and a “victim stash house” property on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
The complaint said: “Staley … was a regular visitor of Epstein’s and personally observed Jane Doe 1 as a sexual trafficking and abuse victim at times including through his departure from JP Morgan in 2013.”
It added: “To be clear, during his years as a top executive at JP Morgan, Staley was not only one of Epstein’s closest pals, but more importantly, he was a frequent visitor at Epstein’s townhouse, including visiting the massage room; Staley met many of Epstein’s trafficking victims, including Jane Doe 1; Staley visited the Epstein-owned victim stash house apartments at [an address on the Upper East Side]; and Staley personally observed the sexual abuse of young women, including Jane Doe 1.”
The suit claims that “in exchange for crucial financial support, JP Morgan knowingly benefited and received things of value from Epstein and his sex-trafficking operation”.
Mr Staley allegedly bragged within JP Morgan about Epstein’s value to the bank and “used his position in the bank to silence any critics of the relationship between the bank and Epstein. This meant that JP Morgan would keep Epstein on as a client at all costs, including failing to act on any red flags.”
Both JP Morgan and lawyers for Mr Staley declined to comment.
The UK Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority began investigating whether the bank chief properly explained his relationship with Epstein in 2019, after receiving emails that suggested the pairing was friendlier than claimed.
Barclays said the investigation makes no findings that Mr Staley saw, or was aware of, any of Epstein’s crimes.
The fresh allegations come just a week after Mr Staley was accused of facilitating sex trafficking for Epstein after forming a “profound” friendship with his former client in a separate lawsuit. That claim, which was filed by the US Virgin Islands against JP Morgan, alleged that the close relationship between the two men could “even suggest that [Mr] Staley may have been involved in Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation”.