Jes Staley, former CEO of Barclays, arrives on the workplaces of Boies Schiller Flexner LLP in New York on June 11, 2023.
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LONDON — Former Barclays CEO Jes Staley on Thursday was fined and banned from holding any place of affect within the U.Okay. monetary providers business for deceptive the regulator over his relationship with intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein.
U.Okay. regulator the Monetary Conduct Authority introduced Thursday that it had determined to high-quality Staley £1.8 million ($2.21 million) and ban him from holding a senior administration or vital affect operate within the sector.
The FCA discovered that Staley “recklessly accepted” a letter despatched by Barclays to the regulator that contained two deceptive statements concerning the nature of his relationship with Epstein and the purpose of their final contact.
Therese Chambers, joint govt director of enforcement and market oversight on the FCA, mentioned in an announcement Thursday {that a} CEO “must train sound judgment and set an instance to workers at their agency.”
“Mr Staley failed to do that. We take into account that he misled each the FCA and the Barclays Board concerning the nature of his relationship with Mr Epstein,” Chambers mentioned.
“Mr Staley is an skilled business skilled and held a distinguished place inside monetary providers. It’s proper to forestall him from holding a senior place within the monetary providers business if we can’t depend on him to behave with integrity by disclosing uncomfortable truths about his shut private relationship with Mr Epstein.”
Staley stepped down as CEO of the British lender in November 2021 following the findings of an preliminary FCA probe into his characterization of his ties with the disgraced former financier, who died by suicide in 2019 in Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Heart after being charged with little one intercourse trafficking.
The FCA requested Barclays in August 2019 to clarify what it had finished to fulfill itself that there was no impropriety within the relationship between the 2 males, and Staley accepted a letter suggesting that they didn’t have an in depth relationship.
Emails subsequently emerged by which Staley described Epstein as one in every of his “deepest” and “most cherished” associates, the FCA confirmed. Barclays’ letter additionally claimed Staley had ceased contact with Epstein lengthy earlier than he joined the financial institution in December 2015. He was later found to have spoken to Epstein on Oct. 28, 2015.
Staley has referred the choice to the higher tribunal for consideration.
In a market discover Thursday, Barclays mentioned it had decided that Staley ought to be ineligible for or forfeit a variety of previous bonuses and compensation awards from the corporate totaling £17.8 million.
Barclays declined to remark additional on the matter.
