Barclays C.E.O.’s Ties to Jeffrey Epstein Provoke U.K. Inquiry

Barclays said on Thursday that British financial regulators were investigating the relationship between James E. Staley, its chief executive, and Jeffrey Epstein, the financier who killed himself last August after facing new allegations of sex trafficking of underage girls.

Mr. Staley is one of a handful of prominent Wall Street financiers who have been linked to Mr. Epstein, who portrayed himself as indispensable to corporate executives and built up a small but powerful finance network. He had known Mr. Epstein since at least 1999, when the future Barclays chief was running the private banking business of the Wall Street bank JPMorgan.

“As has been widely reported, earlier in his career, Mr. Staley developed a professional relationship with Mr. Epstein,” Barclays said in a statement. It added that Mr. Staley, who is known as Jes, had told the bank that he had had no contact with Mr. Epstein after taking the top position at the lender in December 2015.

Barclays said regulators including the Financial Conduct Authority, the main overseer of banks in Britain, were examining how Mr. Staley characterized the relationship with Mr. Epstein to the company, as well as what the company subsequently told the financial conduct agency.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/13/business/jes-staley-jeffrey-epstein-barclays.html?emc=rss&partner=rss