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Jes Staley, a former Barclays director who struggles to clean his name over the relationships with Jeffrey Epstein, once protested with a high colleague so that he would never meet his family with a convicted pedophile, heard the court.
Sasha Wiggins, who was Staley’s staff chief at the British bank, and now runs Barclay’s private bank and wealth management, Tibunal said on Wednesday that Staley once asked her: “Why would I meet my wife and daughter with Mr. Epstein if I think he’s a pedophile?”
In her attached witness, Wiggins said that when she was accompanied by Staley on a trip to his Alma Mater Bowdoin College 2019 – where he was trying to convince the custody committee for her relationships with Epstein – she was not aware that Epstein was invited to graduate from Staley’s daughter in 2015.
Her evidence came on the third day of the trial in which Staley tries to undo the prohibition and a fine by the financial behavior body. The UK Regulator states that he played his relationship with Epsteinwhich was found dead in a prison cell in 2019. The guard does not claim that Staley was aware of Epstein’s crime.
Former Barclays Boss claims that there was no wrong presentation. Staley led the bank between December 2015 and November 2021.
High cases of references Epstein’s Rolodex from public figures of high society and powerful individualsFrom British Prince Andrew to former US Minister of Treasury Lawrence Summers and Lord Peter Mandelson, a new ambassador to the United States.
FCA told the tribunal that he would take more “emergency” actions, that it was not the fact that Barclays had assured that Staley and Epstein had no “close” relationship.
Jonathan Davidson, a former Senior FCA official, said on Wednesday Tribunal that he would tell Barclays to investigate Staley’s relationship with Epstein in more detail – and potentially take action themselves – if the bank said the couple was close.
A few days after Epstein died, FCA asked the Barclays chair Nigel Higgins who took the steps to ensure that Staley was not involved in the alleged trade and abuse of dozens of teenagers.
Higgins sent a FCA letter, saying that Staley confirmed “that he had no close relationship” with Epstein and “at any point saw nothing he suggested or discovered any aspect of behavior that was the subject of recent accusations.”
FCA lawyers, led by Leigh-Ann Mulcahy KC, claim that the Bank’s statements were incorrect, citing a series of e-mails handed over to Staley’s former employer JPMORGAN that the guard said his relationship was Epstein near, including several trips in the Caribbean on a private dish.
“If I had received the answer that” yes, there was a close relationship, but we were sure that there was nothing in it, “then it would be urgent to find out more, not to accept Mr. Staley’s confirmation that he was not a witness and there was no inappropriateness,” Davidson said.
Staley’s legal team, led by Robert Smith KC, discussWith the actual purpose of Barclays’s letter of the guard, it was not to provide a comprehensive account of couple’s relationship, but to simply secure FCA that neither Staley nor Barclays knew or were involved in Epstein’s criminal behavior.
Tribunal heard earlier this week that Staley made a “clear impression” to former chief of Barclays’ chief Stephen Doherty – after Staley’s probably appointed Naming reported the Financial Times in October 2015. Doherty told the tribunal that Barclays relied on this impression when he ran the mail on Sunday while newspapers were preparing an article about the relationships between the two.
In fact, Tribunal heard, Staley was in contact with Epstein at the time to talk about his potential appointment for executive director and related printing investigations.
