The Judgment of Jes Staley

At the dining table in Jeffrey Epstein’s palatial Manhattan townhouse, Sandy Warner was becoming increasingly wary. It would be a few years before reports of Epstein’s crimes emerged, but something about him felt odd to Warner — as did the parade of young women walking around the property. One of them even tried to rub Warner’s shoulders, which creeped him out some more.

However, Epstein was clearly rich, and claimed to be influential. As CEO of JPMorgan — now JPMorgan Chase & Co. — it was Warner’s job to get to know such people. “I thought he was very well-connected because he told me he was,” Warner said, recalling the dinner that took place more than two decades ago, in or around the year 2000. “He had all sorts of war stories about people’s money who he said he managed.”

Returning to his office, Warner gave his staff an instruction: he never wanted to see Epstein again. But, despite his misgivings, Warner didn’t completely bar his colleagues from working with the secretive financier. “I think I said something like: ‘Look, you guys in the private bank can deal with him if you want, but I don’t want to,’” Warner said.

So it was that the newly-installed — and ambitious — head of JPMorgan’s private bank, Jes Staley, went to meet Epstein, beginning a professional and personal relationship that endured for more than a decade, even after Epstein was jailed for solicitation of an underage girl and placed on a sex offenders’ register. Staley has now been banned for life from working in financial services in the UK, with his reputation indelibly marked by his friendship with Epstein, the details of which have now been revealed in open court in a hearing that Staley himself initiated.

A huge trove of emails, documents and regulatory investigations, released during legal proceedings over the past few years, have shown that Staley and Epstein met and corresponded regularly between the early 2000s and 2015, when the former was appointed CEO of Barclays. Staley visited Epstein’s Caribbean island and consulted him repeatedly for career advice and business dealings. Such was the apparent closeness of their relationship that the two men referred to each other as “family.”

Staley’s attempts to downplay his dealings with Epstein — a prolific pedophile and sex trafficker with dozens of victims, many of them young and vulnerable women — ended his career at Barclays. In 2023, after a four-year-long investigation, the Financial Conduct Authority ruled that Staley had “recklessly misled” it by minimizing his ties to Epstein. Staley was fined £1.8 million ($2.4 million) and banned from holding senior roles in the financial services industry.

That could have been the end of the affair. Staley, 68, could have retired to his yacht, Bequia, with millions of dollars in the bank. Instead, he launched an attempt to salvage his reputation and career via a highly-publicized appeal. Over 12 days in a London courtroom this spring, Staley sat through hours of testimony and cross-examination, including detailed explorations of the well-documented communications between him and Epstein — and a public admission of infidelity.

Ultimately, the case was an argument over a technicality: whether or not Staley acted recklessly by not fully disclosing his relationship with Epstein to Barclays, and hence to the regulator. The judgment, released Thursday, reduced Staley’s fine to £1.1 million, but affirmed the lifetime ban. Staley has 14 days to appeal the ruling.

The judge presiding over the case, Timothy Herrington, delivered a scathing assessment as he explained his decision to bar Staley from working in the industry. “We have noted Mr Staley’s achievements as chief executive of Barclays, but in our view these do not diminish the seriousness of the misconduct,” Herrington wrote. “The loss of his longstanding career is an inevitable consequence of that conduct.”

But for those who advocate for Epstein’s victims, the information that has come out during the case against Staley shows that there is still a long way to go before the institutions and individuals that they feel enabled Epstein’s crimes are fully held to account.

“Jeffrey Epstein’s massive and monstrous sex trafficking enterprise damaged the lives of countless girls and young women. Though the story of how he operated with impunity for decades has yet to be told fully, we know he did not act alone,” said Sigrid McCawley, managing partner at law firm Boies Schiller Flexner, who represented several of Epstein’s victims in a lawsuit against JPMorgan. “Epstein’s enterprise was enabled by many in the ranks of the privileged and powerful, including people in the world of finance and banking like Jes Staley.”

A representative for Staley did not respond to requests for comment. Staley has previously denied having any knowledge of or involvement in Epstein’s crimes.

JPMorgan declined to comment.

Staley’s relationship with Epstein began not long after the dinner that Warner attended. In his testimony at the London tribunal in 2025, Staley said it was Warner who had “advised me that it was important for me to get to know Mr Epstein, and it was clear that he was considered to be a particularly valued client of the bank.”

Warner was one of Wall Street’s most-powerful executives at the turn of the century, serving as CEO of JPMorgan from 1995 to 2000. From that post, he helped oversee its sale to Chase Manhattan Bank in 2000, uniting two of the oldest US banks and creating the company now known as JPMorgan Chase, the largest US bank.

Speaking in an interview for the first time about Staley and Epstein, Warner remembers the interaction differently. “I don’t remember telling Jes to meet him, but Jes would’ve been the logical person for me to call,” he said. “I think I’d have said something like he’d be a good guy to meet, but just understand that I grew uncomfortable with him and you should be wary, too.”

Email records for the first years of the relationship are scant, but those that do exist show that as early as December 2001, Staley’s colleagues at JPMorgan were consulting him on how to deal with Epstein. Then, in March 2004, Staley wrote a memo to senior executives at JPMorgan: a proposal for an investment in Highbridge Capital Management LLC, a hedge fund that was at the time one of the world’s most successful alternative asset managers, having generated double-digit returns consistently since its founding in the early 1990s.

The opportunity, Staley said in a memo, cited in a May 2023 deposition, had come to JPMorgan because of the bank’s relationship with Highbridge’s founders and a “founding investor”: Epstein, who held a central role in the talks between the two firms. Six months after Staley’s memo, JPMorgan announced the purchase of a controlling stake in Highbridge.

For Staley, the deal showed that Epstein could be a catalyst for his career. The Highbridge takeover was, Staley said during his testimony in London, “one of the most important transactions in the financial industry in our generation.”

Jamie Dimon, who had been appointed CEO of JPMorgan in 2006, was less impressed. Asked in a 2023 deposition about whether the Highbridge takeover had been a good deal for the bank, his reply was blunt: “Not really.”

Over the next few years, documents and emails released in successive court and regulatory filings, show that Staley’s relationship with Epstein deepened. In February 2005, Staley asked his colleagues at JPMorgan private bank to onboard a new client, Epstein’s sometime girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell. In 2005 or 2006, according to the FCA’s final submission to the London tribunal, Staley took his first flight on Epstein’s plane, and spent a night — along with his family — on the financier’s Caribbean island.

Epstein seemed to be good for business, referring other clients to the bank, and putting Staley in front of the rich and powerful. Over this period, Staley would later tell the London tribunal, “Epstein had introduced me to I think at that time probably three of the five wealthiest people in the world.”

Then, in May 2006, Palm Beach Police filed a probable cause affidavit stating that Epstein should be charged with unlawful sex with minors and sexual abuse. The year before, the force had received an accusation that the financier had paid a 14-year-old girl for a massage and molested her. Local police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation began an investigation, searching his home and hearing testimony from multiple victims alleging that Epstein had assaulted them.

In July 2006, Epstein was arrested on charges of procuring a minor for prostitution and solicitation of a prostitute.

The day after Epstein was charged, Staley met him at his New York office, later writing to colleagues in an email disclosed as part of a court case brought by the US Virgin Islands against JPMorgan, that “I’ve never seen him so shaken. He also adamently denies the ages.”

This email, along with the others released during the court proceedings and used in Bloomberg’s reporting, is quoted verbatim in this account, including errors in spelling and grammar.

In September 2007, Epstein agreed to a plea deal with prosecutors in Florida. In June 2008, he pleaded guilty to procuring sex from a minor, and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

“Just thinking about you,” Staley wrote in an email to Epstein days after he had begun his sentence. Weeks later he wrote again: “I will miss stopping by your office for advice.”

As soon as the charges against Epstein were made public, Staley’s colleagues at JPMorgan began to worry about the bank’s exposure. On Sept. 20, 2007, days before Epstein made his plea deal, Mary Erdoes, then a senior executive in the private bank and now the bank’s global head of asset management, sent Staley an email with the subject line ‘NY Post’, writing: “Page Six”. “What’s on Six?” replied Staley. “It’s actually on page 14 in the “page six” column. Epstein. Rumored 15 months jail with 15 months home confinement. Then a few details of one of the nights - yuck.”

In July 2008, executives, including Staley, met to discuss “concerns about the risks that Epstein posed,” according to documents disclosed during the US Virgin Islands’ lawsuit.

Some in the bank wanted to cut ties with Epstein after he began his sentence, but emails from the time suggest that Staley stood in their way.

“He [Staley] wants to keep his [Epstein’s] accounts,” wrote one of the bank’s staffers in a mid-July email. Epstein remained a so-called “reactive” client whereby JPMorgan would not seek new business from him, but equally would do nothing to push him out.

A few months after Epstein was released from prison, Staley was promoted to become head of JPMorgan’s investment bank, one of the most prestigious positions on Wall Street. Staley first found out about his new role not from his bosses, but from Epstein, who had somehow got advance notice of his friend’s promotion.

Epstein immediately began advising Staley on how he should approach his new role, writing in October: “my suggestion Your first Great move, should be a new CHina, initiative. first it was alternative investments now china.” Staley replied: “Brilliant!”

Soon, Epstein was once again helping Staley meet people who could further his career. JPMorgan was at the time trying to buy the Sempra commodities trading business from the Royal Bank of Scotland PLC, which had been bailed out by the UK government in 2008. With RBS in public hands, JPMorgan needed political support for the deal, so, in January 2010, Epstein helped broker meetings for Staley at Davos with Peter Mandelson, then a UK cabinet minister with responsibility for Britain’s business department, now the British ambassador to the US, and with the chancellor of the time, Alistair Darling.

“My view Sempra is an asset that comes up once every ten years,” Epstein wrote to Staley. He followed up later asking “was Petie helpful?” before adding: “You can always portray the purchase as done by the investment bank, it should be the primary buyer.”

In February 2010, RBS agreed to sell Sempra to JPMorgan for $1.7 billion. “You are a great friend,” wrote Staley to Epstein a couple of days after the deal was announced, according to emails disclosed in March 2025 during the tribunal in London.

Epstein was allowed to return to New York in 2011, where he was forced to register as a level three sex offender, a designation by the state that he had a “high risk” of reoffending. His notoriety and regular presence in the media apparently alarmed JPMorgan’s compliance team. In February 2011, the crime drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit ran an episode about a wealthy and powerful defense contractor who had used an ex-girlfriend to force an underage girl to give him an “inappropriate massage” — which some at JPMorgan assumed was inspired by reports of Epstein and Maxwell. That prompted one compliance staffer to email a colleague:

“Wanted to catch up on Epstein as he was the featured ripped from the headlines on Law and Order SVU this week,” they wrote, in an email disclosed in the US Virgin Islands’ case. “I also read that the state of ny in conjunction with Manhattan DA just two weeks ago ruled him a level 3 which is the highest you can be in ny.”

In February and March 2011 there was a flurry of news coverage around Epstein, much of it related to his alleged relationship with the British royal, Prince Andrew. In March, Vanity Fair published an article about Prince Andrew and Epstein, which Epstein sent to Staley.

Staley forwarded the message to Jonathan Schwartz, general counsel of the investment bank, who in turn sent it on to Stephen Cutler, the group’s general counsel, and to JPMorgan’s head of compliance.

“It is all very unseemly (to say the least),” Schwartz replied, “and doesn’t exactly make me think of the statement from JPM on many an executive’s wall” — a reference to the motto of the bank’s eponymous founder that it should do “first-class business in a first-class way.”

Cutler declined to comment.

Over the next few weeks, according to email traffic disclosed during the US Virgin Islands lawsuit, JPMorgan’s legal team worked the phones to try to establish whether, as press reports had suggested, the FBI was investigating new charges against Epstein.

As the bank staff fretted over the risks that Epstein posed, Staley was concerned for his friend. In March 2011, less than a week after the UK’s Daily Mail newspaper published a story about Epstein — including a photo of Prince Andrew with one of Epstein’s accusers, Virginia Giuffre — Staley wrote to Epstein:

“Deby and I were talking tonight about what you have meant to me and to Alexa,” he wrote, referring to his wife, Debora, and eldest daughter, Alexa. “You have paid a price for what has been accused. But we know what u have done for us. And we count you as one of our deepest friends. And most honest people.”

Epstein replied with one word: “family.”

JPMorgan’s Cutler and Schwartz discussed whether a new investigation would be enough to kick Epstein out. “He’s settled 16 private lawsuits on this stuff!?” wrote Cutler. “Is that a rhetorical question? :-)” replied Schwartz.

Staley was no longer head of the private bank, but emails and legal documents show he continued to involve himself in discussions about Epstein’s accounts at JPMorgan. Although in April, Staley appeared to have agreed to step back and let his colleagues handle the issue, that didn’t seem to stick. “I don’t believe that he was in any way sort of walled off from that decision or recused himself from that decision-making process,” Cutler said in a 2023 deposition. “And indeed... I was asked by Mr Staley to hear Mr Epstein out.”

In December 2011, according to his testimony during the deposition, Cutler was uncomfortable about the bank's relationship with Epstein, but couldn't convince Staley. “I couldn’t say to Mr Staley: ‘I think what you’re doing is illegal,’ and I didn’t think it was at the time,” Cutler said during his testimony. “I understood he could have a different view, and he did.”

While Epstein was in jail in 2008, his correspondence with Staley revealed a shared interest in one-percenter luxuries Epstein’s real estate and Staley’s yacht, Bequia, which was still under construction at the time. The boat, Staley said in a July 2008 email released by the FCA in 2023, was coming along and “wouldn’t be there without your encouragement. 18 months until she is anchored in front of St Jeff” — the nickname the two men used for Epstein’s private island, Little Saint James Island in the US Virgin Islands.

During their friendship, Staley was a regular user of Epstein’s extensive real estate portfolio, which included St Jeff, a spacious New York townhouse and a ranch in New Mexico, which Staley visited in 2009, sending a message from the hot tub extolling their friendship.

At the London tribunal, Staley played down the significance of the visit. “I wasn’t there because of the ranch itself,” he said. “I was there because I was in Albuquerque on business, and people rarely go to Albuquerque on business.”

Epstein’s staff appeared to have been instructed to make sure Staley was comfortable. There were sometimes frenetic email exchanges to ensure his New York mansion had Staley’s favorite Stephen Vincent sauvignon blanc on hand whenever he was visiting, according to messages released by the FCA. On one occasion Epstein’s assistants apologetically messaged Staley’s office to let them know they had run dry of the mid-priced Californian white wine he usually drank, and that even efforts to call the winery directly had failed to source a fresh supply.

“Is there perhaps another sauvignon blanc that we could keep on hand for Jes?” wrote one of Epstein’s assistants. Asked at the tribunal about the incident, Staley said that he “occasionally” would have a glass of wine when he was at Epstein’s townhouse, but couldn’t remember the specifics.

Staley’s defense at the tribunal was that, while he and his family enjoyed Epstein’s hospitality on several occasions, Epstein had never actually visited any of Staley’s own properties. Staley owned a restaurant in New York, but he and Epstein had never dined there together. “All my close friends have gone to that restaurant,” said Staley. “He was never there… he was never at my home.” It was a persuasive line. However, the famously fastidious Epstein rarely dined out with anyone and did almost all of his entertaining at his own properties.

The men’s closeness went beyond their shared love of luxuries. Alexa, Staley’s daughter, wanted to pursue an academic career in theoretical physics. In an April 2009 email, Epstein rattled off a list of some of the world’s leading string theorists, offering to arrange time for her to sit down with them, as well as saying he could get Alexa a private tour of the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland. Staley forwarded the message on to Alexa. “This is from Uncle Jeffrey,” he wrote.

Alexa Staley did not respond to a request for comment via her father’s lawyers.

July 2012 began well for Staley. His yacht Bequia came third in a prestigious regatta, the Pendennis Cup at the Royal Cornwall Yacht Club. As head of JPMorgan’s investment bank, he was seen in some circles as the heir apparent for Jamie Dimon. And it seemed he might soon have a shot at the top job.

On July 13, JPMorgan shocked Wall Street with the announcement of a $5.8 billion loss on a credit portfolio managed by its London-based CIO team. By the end of the year the loss from the “London Whale” would be calculated at $6.2 billion. The scandal put pressure on Dimon, which Staley, allegedly, was ready to exploit.

“He thought I’d lose my job and that he could be the guy,” said Dimon, speaking in a 2023 deposition. Dimon said there was “some evidence” Staley had attempted to replace him over his handling of the Whale situation, approaching board members to say that if they needed a new CEO, he was ready to step up. “The board would never have put him in the job,” added Dimon.

In the background, others were maneuvering on Staley’s behalf. Working with a London-based consultant, Ian Osborne, Epstein was planning something the pair called “Project Jes,” an attempt to get Staley appointed as CEO of Barclays. They discussed getting press coverage to “float a trial balloon” linking Staley with the job. “There is no downside for him at JPM to know that he is sufficiently good that the Barclays board are considering him for CEO,” Osborne wrote in a July email to Epstein.

There was. By the end of the month Staley had been stripped of his management responsibilities and given a vague assignment to develop a “view of what global banking will look like in the years ahead.” Weeks later, Barclays opted against hiring him, promoting an internal candidate, the British retail banker and former Citigroup Inc. executive Antony Jenkins, as its next CEO.

Osborne declined to comment.

At the age of 55 it appeared that Staley, who had joined JPMorgan in its personnel department more than three decades earlier, had overplayed his hand. Epstein, though, had not given up on Project Jes.

With the writing on the wall for Staley at JPMorgan, Epstein and Osborne brought Staley together with Andrew Feldstein, the co-founder of New York hedge fund Blue Mountain, according to an itinerary included in the FCA’s statement of case at the 2025 tribunal. Within weeks of the meeting, Staley had secured a job at Blue Mountain.

Feldstein did not respond to a request for comment.

In his traditional New Year’s message to Epstein, Staley was effusive. “Thanks for all the friendship this year,” he wrote. “You were enormously kind and supportive. All looks good for next year. More freedom, more deals, more building, more things we can do together.”

Eight days into 2013, Staley’s career at JPMorgan came to a close. In a statement at the time, Dimon described Staley as “an extraordinary leader and a valued partner.” Giving evidence in his deposition a decade on, the CEO had a more scathing take. “Jes wasn’t up to running the investment bank,” he said. “He had all the senior people complaining.”

With Staley gone from JPMorgan, Epstein’s accounts at the bank came under scrutiny again. Bank staff, including the then-head of JPMorgan’s private bank, John Duffy, had become concerned the previous year about seemingly odd cash transactions that the convicted pedophile had been making. Epstein had been withdrawing money, often tens of thousands of dollars at a time. Epstein argued that they were used to pay for jet fuel, since some airports would only accept cash.

On July 19, 2013, Duffy emailed Erdoes with a message, outlining draft talking points for a conversation that Erdoes was to have with Epstein. It amounted to a list of reasons to remove him as a client, top of which was “the repetitive nature of your cash transactions is a problem for us and our relationship with you.” The final message was blunt: “Remediation is required and we need to ask you — in an orderly manner — to find another bank for your needs.” Some time in July 2013, the message was delivered to Epstein.

Discarded by JPMorgan, Epstein quickly found a new home for his money at Deutsche Bank, a decision the German bank would come to regret, after it became a subject of a regulatory investigation, as well as the focus of a victims’ lawsuit.

Deutsche Bank declined to comment.

Epstein seemed keen to widen his banking options. In December 2014, UBS announced Staley’s appointment as a non-executive director. On May 7, 2015, Staley formally joined the Swiss bank’s board. Within weeks, Epstein was already looking for a way in.

“I would like a new investment person. Anyone at UBS?” he wrote. Staley would later say at the London tribunal that he had no memory of these exchanges.

A month later, Epstein was back. Would it “be possible to set up an account with UBS. Do not want to cause any problem for you, id start with 100 million,” wrote Epstein. “I am getting closer to people here,” replied Staley. “I’m in a board meeting. Let’s talk about it.”

UBS declined to comment.

But as Epstein attempted to insinuate his way into UBS using Staley’s directorial clout, an even bigger prize came back into view for his old friend.

On July 8, 2015, Barclays deputy chairman Michael Rake announced that Jenkins would leave the bank. “Notwithstanding Antony’s significant achievements, it became clear to all of us that a new set of skills were required for the period ahead,” Rake said.

The leading candidate to replace him was clear — the man they’d come so close to hiring three years before. Two days after Jenkins had walked out of the doors of the Barclays head office for the final time, Reuben Jeffrey, one of the bank’s directors, emailed Staley with the subject line ‘Developments’ and suggested they meet in New York.

A day later, Staley messaged Epstein with the news. “A member of the board just reached out,” wrote Staley. Hours later he messaged Epstein again, forwarding information from the Barclays board nominations committee. “Here we go,” he wrote.

The pair seemed aware that their relationship could be a liability. “Better if you not email me. Phone only,” wrote Epstein on July 24. Staley obliged, only sending emails to Epstein with the subject line ‘Call my cell’ or ‘Call me’.

By the fall, the short search process seemed to be at an end, and Staley once again emailed Epstein directly. “You never wavered in our friendship these last three years,” he wrote. “That means a lot too me... cross your toes!!!” Epstein replied: “More than 10 years.”

On Oct. 13, 2015, the news of Staley’s appointment was leaked to the Financial Times. Three days later, Epstein forwarded Staley an email he had received from a Daily Mail journalist, asking him about their relationship.

“Don’t worry,” wrote Staley the next day. “We will be fine.”

On Oct. 24 2015, the Mail on Sunday published a story on Staley’s links to Epstein. To the relief of Barclays’ communications staff — who had spent the past few days trying to limit the damage, according to people familiar with the situation — the piece didn’t make the front page. The article alleged that Epstein had “secretly backed” Staley for the Barclays job in 2012, which the bank and Staley disputed. It made no mention of the pair’s long friendship, which the bank had denied in a legal letter, saying that Epstein was “at best an acquaintance” of Staley.

Staley did suggest removing the “acquaintance” line and replacing it with a statement saying that he knew Epstein from his time at JPMorgan, but that “they are certainly not close friends as your allegations might imply.” However, by the time his suggestions came in, the letter had already been sent.

Two days after the story was published, Barclays chairman John McFarlane emailed Staley to warn that the British press “is much more aggressive than anywhere else” and warned him to be careful. The bank’s head of communications, Stephen Doherty, who had handled the Mail story, told Staley that he would have to cut ties with Epstein to avoid the bank being drawn into a scandal.

On Oct. 28, McFarlane announced Staley’s appointment, saying: “He is a man of enormous integrity, and someone who both understands the business, but also the importance of cultural reform and the need to conduct our business in a way that we can all be proud of.”

According to Staley’s opening testimony, Barclays’ new CEO called Epstein to tell him there would be no more communication between them.

A Barclays spokesperson said via email that “Mr Staley was appointed following a thorough hiring process which included customary diligence, background checks and references. At the time, there was no reason to believe he was not an appropriate candidate.” They declined to comment further, other than to confirm that the bank is not funding Staley’s appeal against the FCA.

On July 6, 2019, Epstein was arrested as he disembarked from his private jet at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey. Two days later, he was charged with sex trafficking and conspiracy to traffic minors for sex. A grand jury indictment alleged that “dozens” of underage girls had been brought to his properties for Epstein to abuse.

A later trial of Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell heard evidence that young women and girls, often from vulnerable backgrounds, were enticed by money or promises of education or employment into Epstein’s household and abused, often repeatedly. In December 2021, Maxwell was convicted of conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, conspiracy to transport minors with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, conspiracy to commit sex trafficking and sex trafficking of minors.

Epstein was found dead in his cell at the Metropolitan Correction Center in New York on Aug. 10, 2019. The New York City medical examiner declared the death a suicide.

After Epstein’s death, prosecutors and victims started to look for others who could be held accountable for his crimes. That included the institutions that had worked with the convicted sex offender.

In the US Virgin Islands, where Epstein had his island estate, Attorney General Denise George issued subpoenas to some of the most powerful institutions and individuals on Wall Street, including JPMorgan. After collecting reams of documentation, she filed a lawsuit against JPMorgan in December 2022, accusing it of playing a role in enabling Epstein to finance and run his sex-trafficking empire — although she was fired shortly afterwards.

By then, in November 2022, lawyers for Epstein’s victims had filed their own lawsuit against JPMorgan. The bank took the unusual step of enjoining Staley to the case, saying that if it ended up losing in court, it intended to pursue its former employees for all the costs it faced. JPMorgan paid $290 million to settle the victims’ lawsuit, and $75 million to settle the US Virgin Islands case, without admitting wrongdoing.

George did not respond to a request for comment.

Thanks to the lawsuits from the US Virgin Islands and the victims, huge volumes of evidence, including emails between Epstein and Staley, were put into the public domain.

While much of litigation related to Epstein has been settled, there is at least one investor lawsuit still pending against Barclays and Staley. On Wednesday, a judge in Los Angeles rejected a bid by Staley to dismiss the case.

The Upper Tribunal is not a typical London court. In the Rolls Building of London’s Royal Courts of Justice, the judge sits flanked by a pair of experts seconded from the financial services industry to hear the most controversial and high-profile legal cases between the FCA and those it seeks to punish.

On March 10, 2025, tanned and in a dark suit, Staley took his seat in the witness box. When he testified, he spoke quietly and at times seemed to struggle with the proceedings. At one point, his lawyer asked if Staley could have a notebook to help him respond to questions. The main thrust of his case was that the letter sent from Barclays to the FCA was a collective response from the bank, with multiple drafts and multiple people involved. The FCA, Staley’s team said, had never been clear about what information it was seeking. Whenever he was directly asked about his ties with Epstein, Staley answered using a stock phrase: “I had a close professional relationship.”

But the court case was also a challenge to the FCA to relitigate its case, meaning that it once again delved into the evidence against Staley. On the eighth day of the trial, it became clear just what Staley had opened himself up to. The FCA’s lead lawyer Leigh-Ann Mulcahy asked for bundles of papers to be distributed around the court, the information being too sensitive to be shown on the screens visible from the public seating at the back of the room. After waiting for Staley to read the documents, Mulcahy began her questioning.

“I am going to put some questions to you based on what we understand based on the evidence you gave in your deposition on oath in the US proceedings arising out of the passages that you have looked at,” she said. Then came the bombshell. “You accept, do you, that you had sexual intercourse with a woman at Mr Epstein’s apartment on East 66th Street, or Mr Epstein’s brother’s apartment on East 66th Street?” said Mulcahy.

“Yes,” replied Staley.

“She was someone connected with Mr Epstein wasn’t she?” Mulcahy continued.

“Yes,” replied Staley.

“And you met this woman through Mr Epstein?” said Mulcahy.

“She was part of his staff as I recall,” said Staley.

In a 2023 court filing, lawyers for some of Epstein’s victims described the apartment on East 66th Street as a “stash house,” where trafficked women were kept. The filing also alleged that Staley had “personally observed” the sexual abuse of young women at the apartment. Staley has previously denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes, and any involvement in them.

Here, in court, Staley himself was confirming that not only had he gone to the apartment, but he’d done so to have sex with a member of Epstein’s staff.

During an earlier cross-examination, which discussed his daughter Alexa, Staley had been visibly angry. But as he faced questions about his marital infidelity, he remained composed, keeping his answers short.

Speaking after the hearing had concluded, but before the judgment Warner, Staley’s old boss at JPMorgan, shook his head at what Staley had brought upon himself. “It’s just incredible to me that Jes would think it’s the right idea to raise this in a London court,” said Warner. “Involving his kids, his wife, talking about it all, it boggles my mind.”

If Staley had hoped the appeal would rehabilitate his reputation, the judgment did the opposite. In Herrington’s decision — his last before retirement — he noted that the tribunal found that Staley’s evidence “lacked credibility” and “could be inconsistent… when he felt that it would suit his case.”

“Mr Staley chose to take a calculated risk that we would take his inaccurate account of his relationship with Mr Epstein at face value,” Therese Chambers, the FCA’s joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight, said in a statement on Thursday. “He hoped that the truth would never come to light and that he would get away with it. Such a serious lack of integrity flies in the face of the requirements we place on those at the top.”

Speaking immediately after the judgment, Brad Edwards, a lawyer for several of Epstein’s victims, said that while his clients want to see more than just fines for people who were connected to Epstein, they would likely welcome the outcome of Staley’s appeal. “To the extent there has been any accountability, I know my clients well enough that they will be happy to hear about this, and about anything where the truth comes out,” he said.

The case against Staley, and the huge volumes of messages between Epstein and other influential figures in global finance that are now in the public domain, speak to wider issues of judgment and ethics in the banking sector.

The documents and messages released over the past two years show that Epstein was allowed to remain a client of JPMorgan for years despite a conviction for sex crimes, and that he continued to operate within the highest echelons of the industry. But so far, there has been scant reckoning for the sector. Instead, when big scandals break, “it is treated as a reputation issue,” said Louise Ashley, an associate professor at Queen Mary University. “The changes that are made are quite cosmetic. There isn’t really a commitment to fundamental structural change.”

Ashley said that means the FCA needs to show that it has teeth if it wants to drive deeper behavioral change in the City of London. “It obviously has a certain power, but is working in a sector where the institutions that it regulates are also powerful,” she said. “The whole thing about this which is so depressing is that it’s a reminder that powerful men tend to get protected by each other. And yet it still comes as a bit of a shock when you see it in plain sight.”

During the hearings, Staley did find some sympathy. On the ninth day of the hearing, he had a supporter in the gallery: Crispin Odey, a London-based hedge fund manager, who, was accused of sexual misconduct in a civil case brought by two women in 2023 and of rape in a separate civil case in 2024. Odey denies the charges and is suing the Financial Times, which in 2023 published a report on his alleged sexual misconduct, for libel. Odey is also facing a ban by the FCA. Odey did not respond to requests for comment.

After Staley had finished giving evidence that day, he was seen engaged in conversation with Odey at the top of the flight of stairs on the first floor of the court. “It’s f**king terrible what we are being put through at the moment,” said Odey to Staley as a Bloomberg reporter walked between the men.