Ex-JPMorgan banker Jes Staley claims Jeffrey – Business News
An ex-JPMorgan Chase government testified in London court docket that Jeffrey Epstein knew more about what was happening on the high ranges of the bank than he did.
Jes Staley — who went on to grow to be chief government of Barclays following his stint at JPMorgan — claimed that Epstein, the convicted youngster intercourse offender and disgraced financier who died in jail in 2019, had a “remarkable ability” to collect Wall Street intel, based on a Bloomberg report.
“Mr. Epstein was also well connected within the upper levels of JPMorgan itself,” Staley mentioned during his second day within the witness box as he appealed a proposed ban and $2.3 million effective from London’s financial regulatory company.
Jeffrey Epstein typically knew more about what was happening on the high ranges of JPMorgan Chase than Jes Staley, the previous JPMorgan exec testified. Tayfun Salci/ZUMA / SplashNews.com
“He seemed to be aware of things relating to the bank, that I was not aware of,” Staley added.
Staley – who’s trying to overturn a lifetime ban that the Financial Conduct Authority introduced in 2023 – acknowledged his relationship with Epstein went past work.
“It was founded on a business relationship,” the previous Barclays boss mentioned. “He became a friend.”
He mentioned Epstein instructed him about his own departure from JPMorgan earlier than he even knew about it.
“The bank was more important to him than the other way around,” Staley mentioned.
JPMorgan Chase officers didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
In 2000, JPMorgan’s then-chief government Douglas “Sandy” Warner instructed Staley he ought to get to know Epstein, Staley claimed in his witness assertion.
“Sandy Warner recommended that I should become acquainted with Mr. Epstein because he was an exceptionally well connected man who could help me, in my capacity at JPM, to form business relationships with influential and other well connected individuals,” he mentioned.
Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted youngster intercourse offender and disgraced financier who died in jail in 2019. AP
Staley claimed he was not the one high-level determine at JPMorgan in contact with Epstein.
“I have no doubt, as a result of knowledge of the financial services industry, that a number of senior investment bankers at JPM and at other institutions will have engaged in extensive email correspondence with Mr. Epstein and with other clients, without the relationship between them having become a ‘close’ one,” he mentioned in his assertion.
Staley mentioned he regrets his relationship with Epstein, who was a main JPMorgan shopper, and claimed he was unaware of the serial pedophile’s “abhorrent” conduct.
“If I was aware of his monstrous activities, I would not have maintained a relationship, and I was not aware,” he mentioned in court docket.
Jes Staley, Lawrence Summers, Jeffrey Epstein, Bill Gates and Boris Nikolic at Epstein’s Manhattan home in 2011.
But the FCA mentioned that JPMorgan, Staley’s employer for more than 30 years, instructed British regulators days earlier than they launched their investigation that it believed Staley might need been concerned in Epstein’s crimes.
The main Wall Street firm instructed the FCA that it had info that “indicated involvement of Mr. Staley in criminal activity related to Mr. Epstein’s trafficking convictions,” based on Mark Steward, the company’s former head of enforcement.
Mary Erdoes, chief government of JPMorgan’s asset and wealth management division, had desperately sought Epstein’s help because the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme slammed the bank’s shoppers in 2008, based on court docket paperwork filed by the US Virgin Islands in its 2023 swimsuit towards JPMorgan, which has been settled.
Erdoes frantically emailed Staley and requested him to call Epstein – who had pleaded guilty to expenses of soliciting prostitution from a minor simply six months earlier, based on the paperwork.
A trial proof image exhibiting Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, convicted intercourse offender and former British socialite. US District Court for the Southe
Erdoes terminated JPMorgan’s banking relationship with Epstein in 2013, six months after Staley left the bank.
Staley mentioned he believed Erdoes cut ties with Epstein as a result of he had been withdrawing giant quantities of money.
In his witness assertion, Staley claimed he had not been knowledgeable of the problem during his time at JPMorgan.
But he admitted that was inaccurate during questioning, when the FCA’s lawyer offered a 2011 e-mail from Epstein to Erdoes saying: “jes told me there was [an issue] reg[arding] cash withdrawals.”
Staley can also be battling the FCA over a letter despatched by Barclays that claimed he was not close with Epstein.
“The letter could have been written better,” Staley mentioned. “I wish it had been handled better; we probably wouldn’t be sitting here.”
