Staley pushed JP Morgan to keep Epstein, court hears

The former bank boss Jes Staley pushed JP Morgan to keep Jeffrey Epstein as a client despite human trafficking concerns and told him suspicious withdrawals from his account were being investigated, a court has heard.

- Kalyeena Makortoff

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) put the allegations to the ex-chief executive of Barclays during his second day of witness testimony at the upper tribunal in London.

Staley, who resigned from Barclays in 2021, is trying to overturn the regulator's decision to ban him from taking any senior roles in the UK financial sector after claiming he lied about the depth of his relationship with Epstein. Barclays declared to the regulator in a letter in 2019 that the two men "did not have a close relationship".

Staley originally met Epstein in 2000 after he became head of JP Morgan's private bank, where Epstein was a client, and continued their relationship after Staley was appointed to lead the investment bank in 2009.

The FCA's lawyer, Leigh-Ann Mulcahy KC, presented the tribunal with internal emails and notes from JP Morgan bosses, who were considering dumping Epstein as a client in 2011. The financier had been released from prison after being convicted in 2008 of soliciting prostitution from a minor.