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The former CEO of Barclays Jes Staley will argue that the bank had a “clear understanding” of the extent of its links with Jeffrey Epstein when he sent a letter to regulators describing the relationship as “not close”, in a historic opening of trials on Monday.
Staley tries to empty his name and to reverse a life ban on high-level roles in the financial services industry imposed by the Financial Duct Authority of the United Kingdom in 2023. He resigned from his post as CEO of Barclays in 2021 following an FCA survey on the way he described his relationship with the financier and the disgraced sex offender. Staley did not write the letter, but the FCA decided that it had “recklessly approved”.
In his declaration of opening, which was seen by the Financial Times, Staley said that he had “explained enough details on his relationship with Mr. Epstein, in conversations with senior executives and administrators of the Barclays board of directors .. to give them a clear understanding that he has a close professional relationship with Mr. Epstein, extending over many years”.
“It was also one of the factors that made Barclays retained confidence in Mr. Staley after [the FCA] opened and continued his investigation. The FCA started its probe in 2019.
Staley seeks to refute the allegations made by the FCA in his opening arguments according to which he had displayed a “driving model” by repeatedly distorting his relationship with Epstein to avoid damaging his career.
The former boss of Barclays “was aware of the risk that his association with Mr. Epstein posed his reputation and his career,” said Watchdog in his arguments, which were seen by the FT, adding that it was why he sought to “minimize the proximity and the duration of his relationship”.
The FCA said that Staley “should be aware” of the risk that a barclays letter to the guard dog in October 2019 is misleading: it said that Staley had confirmed “he had no close relationship” with Epstein, and that they communicated for the last time “long before he joined Barclays in 2015”.
The FCA had received an email cache from the former Staley employer, Jpmorgan Chase, who, according to the regulator, showed the opposite. This prompted him to launch the investigation which finally led Staley to have a fine of 1.8 million pounds sterling and to have a life ban.
“It was reckless as to this risk of allowing deceptive declarations to be made to authority, in circumstances in which he was the only person in Barclays who really knew the proximity of his relationship with Mr. Epstein and the recence of his contact with him,” said the FCA in his opening arguments.
Staley sought to supervise his relationship with Epstein, who died in 2019 pending a trial on accusations of sexual traffic, such as “a based on business” with some cases of social interaction.
“Mr. Epstein had the most remarkable contact network,” said Staley in his opening declaration. “The range of his contacts and his influence is not only amazing, but is probably unprecedented.”
Staley also argued that there was a difference between what Barclays wanted to transmit with the letter – that Staley did not know or did not participate in Epstein’s crimes – and how the FCA interpreted it.
“The letter was not intended, when it was written and approved, to define the nature and history of Mr. Staley’s relationship with Mr. Epstein,” said his opening press release. “If it was his goal, he would have been written and approved in very different terms.”
The FCA said that it “did not seek to embarrass” Staley, and “invited the court to deduct its participation or to know any fault on the part of Mr. Epstein”.
He added that he had to be able to “rely on the veracity and completeness of the representations made to him and the opening in the disclosure of the questions which he would reasonably expect to be informed”.
“This is an important case. . . On the required driving of people who occupy high-level positions in the sector and who have given the example of their business staff, “he said.
The two -week trial will attract key figures from the city, notably the governor of the Bank of England Andrew Bailey, as well as the former colleagues of Staley in Barclays, who has long sought to be distant from the episode.
