Ex-Barclays boss Jes Staley fails to overturn City job ban over Epstein link

Tom EspinerBusiness reporter, BBC NewsGetty ImagesFormer Barclays boss Jes Staley has misplaced a authorized problem in opposition to a choice to ban him from prime monetary jobs within the UK over his hyperlinks to convicted US intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein.Mr Staley was pressured out in November 2021 after UK regulator, the Monetary Conduct Authority (FCA), discovered he had did not precisely disclose the character and size of his relationship with Epstein to the Barclays board and the FCA in 2019.He had been looking for to overturn the 2023 determination by the regulator to ban him and superb him £1.8m, arguing that he had “by no means tried to hide his relationship with Mr Epstein”.London’s Higher Tribunal dismissed the problem on Thursday, but it surely lowered the superb to £1.1m.In the course of the listening to Mr Staley, who ran Barclays from 2015 to 2021, informed the tribunal that he had a detailed skilled affiliation with Epstein, however not a detailed private friendship.Epstein was discovered to have killed himself in 2019 whereas in jail awaiting trial on intercourse trafficking costs. He was beforehand convicted in 2008 for soliciting intercourse from a minor and sentenced to 13 months in jail.Mr Staley informed the tribunal he had no thought about Epstein’s “monstrous actions”.He mentioned he was upset with the choice however welcomed the tribunal accepting that he was not dishonest.”I’ve labored tirelessly for my prior employers for the whole thing of my profession,” he mentioned.”I’m happy with the help I gave to many people throughout that profession and the technique I developed to assist Barclays when it confronted immense challenges.”The case centred on a 2019 letter despatched by Barclays chair Nigel Higgins to the FCA, which the regulator mentioned contained two deceptive statements: that Staley “didn’t have a detailed relationship” with Epstein and that their final contact was “effectively earlier than he joined Barclays in 2015”.The FCA mentioned that though he didn’t draft it personally, Mr Staley had “recklessly” accredited the letter.Mr Staley, nevertheless, informed the tribunal each statements have been correct and that his “shut enterprise relationship” with Epstein diminished after he left his earlier employer JPMorgan, the place Epstein was as soon as a shopper.Mr Staley had labored on the US funding financial institution for 3 many years, together with heading up its asset and wealth administration division.He mentioned the final time he bodily met Epstein was in April 2015.Though Mr Staley mentioned his relationship with Epstein was “not shut”, a cache of emails launched by JPMorgan recommended the alternative.E-mail exchanges described time spent collectively at Epstein’s properties in New York and on his personal island within the US Virgin Islands, and confirmed Mr Staley had described Epstein as certainly one of his “deepest” and “most cherished” pals.In a now notorious electronic mail thread Mr Staley remarked to Epstein: “That was enjoyable, say ‘Hello’ to Snow White”. Epstein replied: “What character would you want subsequent?” To which Mr Staley responded: “Magnificence and the beast!”As well as, the emails confirmed Mr Staley had been in touch with Epstein within the days main as much as his appointment as Barclays chief govt being introduced on 28 October 2015.Mr Staley has constantly denied understanding something about Epstein’s crimes.