Barclays bank has announced the hasty resignation of its boss Jes Staley, the latest caught up by his links with the late ex-investor indicted for sex crimes Jeffrey Epstein, after Bill Gates and Prince Andrew.
The leader wants to challenge the preliminary findings of an investigation by British regulators which “makes no finding that Mr. Staley saw, or was aware of, any of Mr. Epstein’s alleged crimes,” the financier accused of trafficking in minors and who has since committed suicide in prison, underlines the British bank in its press release.
In business with Jeffrey Epstein since the 2000s
CS Venkatakrishnan, who until now was Global Head of Markets for the Barclays Group, replaces Jes Staley on Monday. Prior to joining Barclays in 2016, he too had worked at JP Morgan Chase, since 1994, “holding senior positions in asset management”.
Barclays stock on the London Stock Exchange fell 2.03% to 198.14 pence on Monday shortly before 11:00 GMT. The bank revealed in February 2020 that Jes Staley, a 64-year-old American, was the target of this investigation, which did not prevent the company from renewing its trust in him.
“Barclays and Mr. Jes Staley, CEO of the group, were informed Friday evening of the preliminary findings” of this investigation launched by the two main British financial regulators, the FCA and the PRA, on the way in which Jes Staley spoke with his group his past business ties with Jeffrey Epstein.
Jes Staley had developed this business relationship with Jeffrey Epstein in the 2000s when he ran JPMorgan’s private bank, which counted the American financier as one of its main clients. He had apologized in February 2020 about a relationship that he said continued until the summer or fall of 2015. “With what we now know I deeply regret having had links with Jeffrey” , he had said.
Barclays wants to protect its reputation
The board of directors of the bank said Monday it was “disappointed” with this outcome while “Mr. Staley has successfully managed the Barclays group since December 2015, with real commitment and competence”. The bank announced at the end of October a net profit group share quadrupled to 5.3 billion pounds over the first nine months of the year, with a “record” performance in the third quarter thanks to the recovery of the economy.
The FCA and the PRA for their part announced in a press release “not to comment on ongoing investigations or regulatory proceedings.”
“The repercussions of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal are spreading and Barclays is itself in the midst of the turmoil,” commented Susannah Streeter, analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown. “Barclays is right to cut short now” its relationship with Jes Staley, and “probably could have done it sooner” because of the risk of tarnishing the reputation of the bank, adds Neil Wilson, analyst at Markets.com.
An Epstein case with multiple ramifications
Businessman Jeffrey Epstein, who committed suicide in prison in August 2019, is accused of bringing minors – some as young as 14 – to his Manhattan residences between 2002 and 2005 at least and Palm Beach, Florida “to have sex with him, after which he would give them hundreds of dollars in cash.”
Already accused more than ten years earlier in Florida of using the services of dozens of underage prostitutes, Jeffrey Epstein had reached a controversial agreement with the federal prosecutor in charge of the case and had been convicted only for minor facts.
Among the many personalities incriminated in the case, Prince Andrew, second son of Queen Elizabeth II, is the subject of a complaint in the United States, accused of sexual assault by an American, Virginia Giuffre. The American billionaire and former Microsoft boss Bill Gates admitted this summer to having made “a huge mistake” when he met Jeffrey Epstein, who he said he had dealt with in order to raise funds for his philanthropic activities. The French Jean-Luc Brunel, founder of the modeling agency Karin Models, is also suspected of having spotted young women for the financier.