The former chief executive of Barclays “rolled the dice” on misleading the financial regulator over his relationship with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, a tribunal has been told.
In 2023, Jes Staley was fined more than £1.8 million and banned from holding senior roles in the financial sector after the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) found that he misled it over the nature of his association with Epstein.
In a letter to the FCA in 2019, approved by Mr Staley, Barclays claimed he did not have a “close relationship” with Epstein and their last contact was “well before” he joined the bank in December 2015.
But the regulator found that the letter was misleading and that Mr Staley acted “recklessly and without integrity” by allowing it to be sent.
The American, who is challenging the finding and the ban at the Upper Tribunal, has told the tribunal that while he had a close professional relationship with Epstein, it was not a close personal friendship.
However, making closing submissions at the hearing in London, Leigh-Ann Mulcahy KC, for the FCA, said that whether it was a close personal relationship or a close professional relationship is a “red herring”.
In written submissions, she said: “Mr Staley must also have been aware he was professionally at risk of losing his role as CEO if it became apparent he had given Barclays an incomplete and inaccurate picture of his relationship with Mr Epstein, and/or it emerged that he did in fact have a close relationship with Mr Epstein, with the reputational risk and regulatory issues that fact might invite.”
She added: “There were many competing risks for Mr Staley which provided a motive for taking a risk of misleading the authority.”