The former bank boss Jes Staley has claimed his honesty in court has “put my marriage at risk” after his lawyer complained that forcing him to disclose he had sex with a member of Jeffrey Epstein’s staff had resulted in “public humiliation”.
The ex-Barclays chief executive capped off three and a half days of cross-examination by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) by suggesting his willingness to endure scrutiny showed he had no interest in misleading the regulator, which alleges he lied about the depth of his relationship with Epstein.
Staley is trying to overturn the FCA’s 2023 ruling that led to a lifetime ban from the City and the loss of £18m in pay and bonuses from Barclays.
Speaking at the Upper Tribunal in London on Thursday, he said: “On my own costs, I crossed the Atlantic to be in the tribunal to be open and honest. I could have stayed at home. I am here to provide clarity to this tribunal. I’m not here to mislead.”
Staley, who has a wife and two daughters, told the court: “I have been honest such that I have put my marriage at risk these last few days. I have never shied away from telling the truth about all of this … I would not try to mislead the FCA. I never have and I never will.”
The comments came a day after he admitted to having intercourse with a woman on Epstein’s staff in a New York apartment owned by the child sex offender’s brother. Staley indicated that it had been consensual but had taken place without the late financier’s knowledge.
The FCA had raised questions over the sexual encounter as part of efforts to illustrate that Staley and Epstein were “indeed close” and had a relationship that “went beyond one that was professional in nature”.
The case centres on a letter that Barclays sent to the FCA in 2019, which declared that the pair “did not have a close relationship” and that Staley’s last contact with Epstein was “well before” he joined Barclays in 2015. The FCA had originally inquired about their ties in summer 2019, weeks after Epstein was remanded in custody to face trial for trafficking underage girls for sex. Epstein died in prison in August 2019.
But Staley’s lawyer, Robert Smith KC, alleged that the FCA referred to the sexual encounter in open court “without any warning”, leading to the “public humiliation of Mr Staley” as the news hit newspaper headlines. The barrister said he was “hugely concerned on Mr Staley’s behalf that he should be treated this way”.
The FCA’s lawyer, Leigh-Ann Mulcahy KC, said Staley was given an opportunity to respond in private, but had not applied to do so. “Mr Staley knew this was coming, I dealt with it as fairly and sensitively as I could, I explained the purpose, that it was not meant to intrude on his private life”, but “solely done on relevance to his relationship with Mr Epstein”.
The judge, Tim Herrington, said he did not think anything more could be done at this stage, but told Smith: “You’ve made the point, and the world would have heard what has been said.”
The court was shown emails suggesting that Staley and Epstein were strategising on how to deal with media inquiries over their relationship weeks before Barclays announced his appointment as CEO on 28 October 2015. The Mail on Sunday had contacted Epstein with claims he lobbied Barclays to appoint Staley both in 2012 and 2015.
Epstein forwarded questions from the paper to Staley, who later replied to say: “Ok. I’m going to play is [sic] simple. I’ve known you as a client. I will tell B tomorrow. Let me know if they say something else. But stay away from them. I’m fine.”
Staley told the court he could not be sure whether “B” referred to Barclays or his former employer, Blue Mountain Capital.
The former Barclays boss also denied that he had used his daughter as a “vehicle for communication” with Epstein until at least 2017 – two years after Staley claimed to have ceased contact due to taking the top role at Barclays.
The court was presented emails showing that Epstein asked Staley’s daughter to relay questions to Staley, to gather his opinion on other bankers in the industry, and to help connect Staley with royalty in the Middle East.
The FCA said it appeared Staley responded to these queries. In one case, his daughter responded to Epstein’s query about whether Staley might want to be considered for a position in the US Treasury. “Spoke with him. He said not yet, but thanks,” she said.
Staley said he did not recall any of those conversations, and he did not realise at the time that his daughter and Epstein were still corresponding.
He is due to spend one more day in the witness box on Friday, as he is re-examined by his own lawyers in the final day of the hearing.
