LONDON — The previous leader govt of Barclays Financial institution, Jes Staley, misplaced a criminal problem Thursday towards a 2023 choice by way of Britain’s monetary regulator to prohibit him from conserving senior monetary roles in the UK for deceptive it over the character of his dating with the past due intercourse culprit Jeffrey Epstein.
The case focused on a letter despatched from Barclays to the Monetary Habits Authority in 2019, which claimed that Staley didn’t have a “shut dating” with Epstein and that their closing touch was once “smartly ahead of” he joined the financial institution in December 2015.
He left the financial institution in 2021 following complaint of his ties to Epstein, who killed himself in a federal prison in August 2019, a month after his arrest on federal intercourse trafficking and conspiracy fees
The regulator had discovered that the letter was once deceptive and that Staley acted “recklessly and with out integrity” by way of permitting it to be despatched. Legal professionals for the regulator instructed the tribunal in March that Staley and Epstein had a “friendship” and maintained touch thru Staley’s daughter as much as no less than February 2017.
In its ruling, the tribunal mentioned it could have anticipated Staley, 68, to were “in particular cautious” in making sure the letter was once correct, and that his breaches of FCA regulations represented “a significant failure of judgment.”
It added that they noticed “no foundation” on which it will have to intervene with the verdict to prohibit Staley, which was once “a plan of action fairly open” to the FCA.
The judgment additionally mentioned that Staley had proven “no regret for his behavior.”
Along with the ban, Staley, a U.S. citizen, were fined 1.8 million kilos ($2.5 million) by way of the regulator. The tribunal did cut back that to round 1.1 million kilos.
Staley’s attorneys mentioned that he “by no means tried to hide” his dating with Epstein, a declare unanimously pushed aside by way of the three-person tribunal in London.
Over the process the listening to previous this 12 months, Staley admitted having a detailed skilled dating with Epstein — he had acted as a non-public banker to the disgraced financier all through his earlier time at JP Morgan Chase — however insisted they weren’t for my part shut.
Following the FCA’s choice in Oct. 2023, Barclays mentioned Staley would now not be eligible for, or would forfeit, bonuses and proportion awards totaling 17.8 million kilos. It had already suspended all of Staley’s deferred bonuses and long-term proportion awards whilst the watchdog investigated.
JP Morgan Chase has additionally agreed to pay $75 million to the U.S. Virgin Islands to settle claims that the financial institution enabled Epstein’s sex-trafficking acts. It additionally reached a confidential agreement with Staley, who it had sued for allegedly concealing his private actions with Epstein from the financial institution.
