Former Barclays CEO and ex-JP Morgan executive Jes Staley admitted in court Wednesday that he had sex with one of Jeffrey Epstein’s staff members at a New York apartment owned by the child sex offender’s brother.
The banker is attempting to appeal a ban proposed by Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) which would bar him from assuming any senior roles in the United Kingdom’s financial sector and see him fined for over $2 million, according to Reuters. The FCA alleges that Staley obscured the depth of his relationship with Epstein, citing a 2019 letter sent to them by Barclays which said that the two “did not have a close relationship.” Epstein was a client of Staley’s during his long tenure at JPMorgan Chase & Co before he left in 2013.
As part of the appeal, Staley is presenting evidence at London’s Upper Tribunal this week, where he made the admission of the sexual encounter Wednesday.
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Staley claimed that he had only visited the apartment once, according to Bloomberg, and got to know the woman while waiting for Epstein to show up for one of their meetings. He said the relationship was consensual and that he didn’t believe Epstein was aware of it.
The former Barclays boss has long maintained that he had no knowledge of Epstein’s alleged sexual misconduct, which includes federal charges for sex trafficking minors. The FCA in turn has claimed that it’s not trying to bring whether or not Staley knew of Epstein’s alleged activities into court, but rather that the two had a relationship that went “beyond one that was professional in nature,” Bloomberg notes.
The financial watchdog also included a handful of email exchanges between Staley and Epstein as part of their evidence. In one July 2010 exchange, Staley reportedly wrote to Epstein: “That was fun. Say hi to Snow White.”
“What character would you like next?” Epstein replied. “Beauty and the Beast,” Staley wrote back to which Epstein said, “Well one side is available.”
“They are strange emails and I don’t recall them,” Staley said of the exchange Wednesday.
