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Former Barclays Jesi Staley’s chief came out fighting in his battle with the UK authorities for his links to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, as a bank chair told a London court that his couple’s view of the couple had changed.
In statements released on Monday, Staley, 68, accused regulators of “destroying” his reputation as he sought to overturn the ban and fine that the financial behavior authority had imposed on him to allow Barclays to deceive the regulator on the nature of his relationship with Epstein.
Cassette focuses on two statements Barclays made in a letter in 2019 – which Staley approved – that the chief executive “did not have a close relationship with Epste and that his last contact with him was” Many Money “he had joined with the UK Bank in 2015.
The FCA, which decided its detention in 2023, claims that a cache of electronic posts between the two shows that the statements on the Barclays letter were incorrect.
Staley said: “FCA takes the most serious and drastic step it can, ending my long and distinguished career in financial services and destroying my reputation without first asking me for an explanation for any perceived inconsistencies” between paper and electronic posts.
“Has made clear to me. . . that (careful arrangement authority) and FCA prejudiced the investigation, “he said.” I consider that the issue of FCA against me lacks objectivity and does not maintain a logical control. “
Staley went to the witness’s stance on Monday immediately after Barclays’ chair, Nigel Higgins, who told the court that the bank would have questioned Staley more fully about his relationship with Epste if he knew what he knows now.
In his witness statement, Higgins said that during Staley’s time in Barclays: “I had realized that the relationship between him and Mr. Epstein was essentially related to business.”
However, he added: “The information for which I am now aware paints a different picture in my mind about the nature of the relationship.”
“As if my colleagues at Barclays and I have been aware of all the information I am aware of, I am sure we would have interrogated Mr. Staley about that further information in depth.
“At this distance, and without the benefit of discussing this information with Mr. Staley and other colleagues, I cannot be sure what we would have ended.”
In a 2021 interview with regulators, Higgins had explained “dear” messages that Staley sent to Epstein as “the way he wrote” for “many people” heard courts on Monday.
Staley, in his witness statement, defended his business links with Epstein, showing his links to a long list of influential figures, including Bill Clinton, Leon Black and Lawrence Summers and describing it as a “valuable” contact to cultivate.
But he insisted it was a “professional relationship” that was “preached to business”, opposing FCA characterization of their relationship as “close”.
“We were not personal friends,” he said in his witness statement.
Staley said that as far as he could recall, his latest meeting with Epstein was in April 2015, when he and his wife visited Epstein Island for several hours during a sailing vacation. The phrase in the letter “Good before” referred to this, he said.
Staley said his latest email exchange was on October 25, 2015, and that his latest phone call was a few days later, when he told Epstein there would be no further communication.
While FCA has argued that contact continued after this through his daughter, Staley said he did not accept that this composite contact. He said there is no “reminder that there was any discussion with my daughter about this correspondence”.
Staley argues that it was flawed for authority simply to compare the content of electronic posts between the two Barclays letter with FCA, whose real purpose was not to provide a comprehensive account of the party’s relationship, but simply to provide fca that neither bold nor Barclays knew or were involved in Epstein’s criminal behavior.
“I’ve never tried to hide my relationship with Jeffrey Epstein,” Staley added. “If I had known that he would find that he was a fruitful sex offender, I would not have a relationship with him at all.”
The issue goes on.
