Jes Staley, the former Barclays chief executive fighting to clear his name over ties to Jeffrey Epstein, once protested to a senior colleague that he never would have introduced his family to a convicted paedophile, a court has heard.
Sasha Wiggins, who was Staley’s chief of staff at the British bank and now leads Barclays’ private bank and wealth management, told the tribunal on Wednesday that Staley had once asked her: “Why would I have introduced my wife and daughters to Mr Epstein if I thought he was a paedophile?”
Wiggins said in her accompanying witness statement that when she accompanied Staley on a trip to his alma mater Bowdoin College in 2019 — where he was trying to reassure the board of trustees over his ties to Epstein — she was not aware that Epstein had been invited to the graduation of Staley’s daughter in 2015.
Her evidence came on the third day of a trial where Staley is trying to overturn a ban and fine by the Financial Conduct Authority. The UK regulator alleges he played down his relationship with Epstein, who was found dead in a prison cell in 2019. The watchdog does not allege that Staley was aware of Epstein’s criminality.
The former Barclays boss argues there was no misrepresentation. Staley led the bank between December 2015 and November 2021.
The high-profile case references Epstein’s Rolodex of high society public figures and powerful individuals, from the UK’s Prince Andrew to former US treasury secretary Lawrence Summers and Lord Peter Mandelson, the UK’s new ambassador to the US.
The FCA told the tribunal it would have taken more “urgent” action, were it not for the fact that Barclays provided assurances that Staley and Epstein did not have a “close” relationship.
Jonathan Davidson, a former senior FCA official, told the tribunal earlier on Wednesday that it would have told Barclays to investigate Staley’s links to Epstein more thoroughly — and potentially taken action itself — if the bank had said the pair were close.
A few days after Epstein died, the FCA asked Barclays chair Nigel Higgins what steps it had taken to ensure that Staley was not implicated in the alleged trafficking and abuse of dozens of teenage girls.
Higgins sent the FCA a letter saying Staley had confirmed “he did not have a close relationship” with Epstein and “at no time did he see anything that would have suggested or revealed any aspect of the conduct that has been the subject of recent allegations”.
The FCA’s lawyers, led by Leigh-Ann Mulcahy KC, argue that the bank’s statements were inaccurate, citing a trove of emails handed over by Staley’s former employer JPMorgan that the watchdog said showed his relationship to Epstein was close, including several trips the banker made in the sex offender’s private jet and to his Caribbean island.
“If I had received a response that ‘Yes, there was a close relationship but we have been assured there was nothing in it,’ then there would have been urgency to find out more rather than accept Mr Staley’s attestation that he witnessed nothing and there was no impropriety,” said Davidson.
Staley’s legal team, led by Robert Smith KC, argues the real purpose of Barclays’ letter to the watchdog was not to provide an all-encompassing account of the pair’s relationship but simply to assure the FCA that neither Staley nor Barclays knew of or were involved in Epstein’s criminal conduct.
The tribunal heard earlier this week that Staley had given the “clear impression” to Barclays’ former communications chief Stephen Doherty — after Staley’s likely appointment was reported by the Financial Times in October 2015 — that he was not in contact with Epstein at the time about his role at Barclays. Doherty told the tribunal that Barclays relied on this impression when it forcefully rebutted the Mail on Sunday as the newspaper was preparing an article about ties between the two.
In fact, the tribunal heard, Staley had been in touch with Epstein at the time to discuss his potential appointment as chief executive and related press enquiries.