General
November 1, 2021
6 minutes read

Jeffrey Epstein Ties Costs Barclays CEO His Job

Jeffrey Epstein, the late convicted sex offender, is dead, but his stained legacy lives on, causing damage to his associates in…

Jeffrey Epstein, the late convicted sex offender, is dead, but his stained legacy lives on, causing damage to his associates in the finance world. Leon Black, the ex-CEO of private equity firm Apollo (NYSE: APO), resigned this March after an investigation revealed his extensive commercial ties to Epstein. Similar connections have cost another big-name CEO his job; Jes Staley, head of British bank Barclays.

Barclays has said its CEO Jes Staley is stepping down following an investigation into his relationship with the late Epstein. It’s a sudden exit for the CEO who has led Barclays for six years now.

The U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority launched an investigation into Staley’s ties with Epstein in 2019, the same year Epstein died in an apparent suicide in American prison custody. The catalyst of the inquiry was email correspondence between Staley and Epstein handed by U.S. regulators to their U.K. counterparts.

Barclays said its board reached an agreement for Staley’s resignation after being notified of preliminary conclusions of the investigation that haven’t been published. It appears that Staley wants to personally challenge the findings and is stepping down to handle the situation.

“In”view of those conclusions, and Mr Staley’stention to contest them, the board and Mr Staley have agreed that he will step down from his role as group chief executive and as a director of Barclays,” Barclays said in a statement.

“I” should be noted that the investigation makes no findings that Mr Staley saw, or was aware of, any of Mr Epstein’s alleged crimes, which was the”central question underpinning Barclays’ support for Mr Staley following the arrest of Mr Epstein in the summer of 2019.” the bank said.

Staley and Epstein’s ties mainly trace back to his time at banking giant J.P. Morgan, where he was a top executive before leaving for Barclays. According to a New York Times report published in 2019, Epstein had referred “dozens” of clients to Staley. It also said Staley visited Epstein during his 13-month sentence in 2008-09 for soliciting prostitution from a minor and furthermore visited Epstein’s private island in 2015.

Stepping down, Staley will be replaced as CEO by Barclays’ head of global markets, CS “Venkat” Venkatakrishnan, with immediate effect. Like Staley, Venkat also joined Barclays after a career at J.P. Morgan.