Recently ousted Barclays CEO Jes Staley went to bat for convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein when he ran the investment banking division at JPMorgan, according to a report. JPMorgan was examining whether to boot Epstein as a client because of his 13-month prison sentence tied to soliciting sex from a minor, but Staley — who ran the giant’s investment bank — argued that Epstein had paid his debt to society and should remain a client, according to the report Wednesday in the Financial Times. Staley’s efforts came after Epstein was convicted in 2008, according to the FT. JPMorgan eventually severed its relationship with Epstein in 2013 — the same year Staley departed the JPM for a new job at a hedge fund before rising to run Barclays in 2015. Staley’s support for Epstein at JPMorgan underscores his longstanding ties to the disgraced financier — and how he advocated on Epstein’s behalf well before it resulted in Staley’s exit from Barclays late last year. In November, reports surfaced that Staley and Epstein had exchanged around 1,200 emails during Staley’s 30-year tenure at JPMorgan. Some emails revealed questionable and unexplained phrases like “snow white,” according to the FT. Staley stepped down from Barclays in November after he reviewed initial findings from a probe by UK regulators into whether he’d mischaracterized his relationship with Epstein as purely professional, according to the FT. Staley is contesting the findings. JPMorgan declined to comment to the FT. A spokesman for Staley also declined to comment. Staley has stated his relationship with Epstein fizzled following the banker’s departure from JPMorgan. But even after he left the bank helmed by Jamie Dimon he visited Epstein at his private island in the Caribbean, “Little Saint James,” according to reports. Staley worked at BlueMountain Capital from 2013 to 2015 before nabbing the top job at Barclays in 2015. Meanwhile, Epstein began working with Deutsche Bank in 2013, according to the FT, after being cut off by JPMorgan following Staley’s departure from JPMorgan. Epstein died in 2019 in prison as he awaited trial for charged he sex-trafficked minors.
