The former bank boss Jes Staley pushed JP Morgan to keep Jeffrey Epstein as a client despite human trafficking concerns and told him suspicious withdrawals from his account were being investigated, a court has heard.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) put the allegations to the ex-chief executive of Barclays during his second day of witness testimony at the upper tribunal in London.
Staley, who resigned from Barclays in 2021, is trying to overturn the regulator’s decision to ban him from taking any senior roles in the UK financial sector after claiming he lied about the depth of his relationship with Epstein. Barclays declared to the regulator in a letter in 2019 that the two men “did not have a close relationship”.
Staley originally met Epstein in 2000 after he became head of JP Morgan’s private bank, where Epstein was a client, and continued their relationship after Staley was appointed to lead the investment bank in 2009.
The FCA’s lawyer Leigh-Ann Mulcahy KC presented the tribunal with a series of internal emails and notes from JP Morgan bosses, who were considering dumping Epstein as a client in 2011. The financier had been released from prison after being convicted in 2008 of soliciting prostitution from a minor.
In one, a senior boss in the compliance team said he had held a meeting with colleagues “to determine how to approach the issue with Jes Staley who is friends with Mr Epstein. He needs to understand the potential backlash to the firm given all the work done to root out clients involved in human trafficking”.
The court was also showed another note produced by JP Morgan bosses which said Staley had asked the bank’s top lawyer, Stephen Cutler, to “hear [Epstein] out”.
Mulcahy put to Staley that others at JP Morgan “appeared to be of the view … that you were the one pushing to retain Mr Epstein as a client”.
Staley denied the allegations saying “I don’t think that’s fair”, adding that while JP Morgan knew the two men had a relationship, the decision to exit a client such as Epstein was not his to make.
He admitted to putting Cutler in contact with Epstein’s lawyer, but said that if JP Morgan’s top lawyer “had wanted to let Epstein go as a client he had full latitude to do that and I would never stand in his way”.
Mulcahy also accused Staley of sharing confidential information with Epstein, particularly about how JP Morgan had concerns over human trafficking allegations against the financier and suspicious cash withdrawals from his account. She pointed to an email that Epstein subsequently sent to a senior boss in the private bank in September 2011, saying “Jes told me that there was [an issue] with reg cash with drawals [sic].”
Staley said that while he “was not part of managing the account” he did not deny that he told Epstein there were concerns about cash withdrawals.
Epstein died in prison in August 2019 while awaiting trial over charges on trafficking underage girls for sex.
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Staley, who walked into court on Tuesday carrying the book The Prosecutor by Jack Fairweather – subtitled “One man’s battle to bring Nazis to justice” – was also asked about time he spent with Epstein over the years.
The court was shown a set of emails from November 2010, in which Epstein messaged Staley: “Petie and others in Paris this weekend”, to which Staley replied: “12pm at ur place[sic]. Is set.” Staley told the court he believed this to be a reference to former Labour business secretary Peter Mandelson – now UK ambassador to the US – whose contact with Epstein was detailed in court documents in 2023.
Staley was part of a draft list of high-profile invitees to Epstein’s birthday celebrations in 2010. That list, put together by Epstein’s assistant, also included: the American magician David Blaine; Columbia University professor and Nobel laureate Richard Axel and his wife; as well as Rolling Stones star Mick Jagger – but only “if he is in town”.
It is not clear if that list was fulfilled. Staley said he struggled to recall details about which of Epstein’s birthday events he attended.
He also told the court that most of his contact with the financier “was related to business”, but that “there was a friend side to it as well”, adding: “He became a friend.”
Staley will continue giving evidence until the end of the hearing, which is due to continue until Friday.
