A U.K. tribunal court upheld a lifetime financial industry ban against former Barclays CEO Jes Staley on Thursday, thwarting the ex-executive’s attempts to clear his name amid ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Staley had challenged a decision by the Financial Conduct Authority, which banned him from holding senior positions within the banking industry on the grounds that he’d “recklessly “approved a letter to the FCA which contained misleading information about the nature of his relationship with Epstein and the timing of their last contact.
Staley maintained that he’d had “zero contact, any relationship at all, with Jeffrey” during his tenure as Barclays CEO from December 2015 to 2021. But email correspondence showed that Epstein and Staley communicated through Staley’s daughter, Alexa.
For example, in response to an email from Epstein, Alexa Staley wrote back that her father “says he hopes you are well and that after a year with [Barclays] he wants to visit.”
Based on email evidence and on various statements by Staley in his deposition – including “He was a friend. He was not my most cherished friend;” and describing him as a “profound professional friend” but not “personally close” – Judge Timothy Herrington, alongside tribunal members Catherine Farquharson and Martin Fraenkel, called the evidence that Staley had a close relationship with Epstein “overwhelming.”
Dismissing Staley’s challenge to his FCA ban, the tribunal wrote that it was “wrong to characterize the breach in this case as merely ‘an error in the drafting of the Letter,’” dubbing it “much more serious.”
“We have noted Mr Staley’s achievements as Chief Executive of Barclays, but in our view these do not diminish the seriousness of the misconduct,” they wrote. “The loss of his longstanding career is an inevitable consequence of that conduct.”
However, the tribunal ordered that a £1.8 million FCA fine Staley was hit with alongside the ban in October 2023 should be cut to £1.1 million.
Therese Chambers, joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said in a prepared statement that Staley took “a calculated risk that we would take his inaccurate account of his relationship with Mr Epstein at face value.”
“He hoped that the truth would never come to light and that he would get away with it. Such a serious lack of integrity flies in the face of the requirements we place on those at the top,” Chambers said.
Staley has 14 days to appeal the ruling. In a prepared statement to The Guardian, Staley didn’t indicate plans to appeal, and said he was disappointed in the outcome and in how long it took for the case to play out.
“As the tribunal accepted, I was never dishonest – it took years of arguing with the authority and until November 2024 to establish that fact and it took more time for the financial penalty to be reduced by 40,” Staley said.
“I have worked tirelessly for my prior employers for the entirety of my career; I am proud of the support I gave to many individuals during that career and the strategy I developed to help Barclays when it faced immense challenges,” he said.
