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Former Barclays chief executive Jes Staley has been fined £1.8m by the Financial Conduct Authority for misleading the watchdog over the nature of his relationship with billionaire convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Mr Staley, an American, has also been banned from holding senior roles in the City.
The FCA said Mr Staley “recklessly approved” a letter sent by Barclays to the regulator that claimed the bank’s former boss did not have a close relationship with Epstein, a financier who was convicted in 2008 of procuring a child for prostitution and faced a new sex-trafficking trial in 2019.
In reality, in emails between the two Mr Staley described Epstein as one of his “deepest” and “most cherished” friends, the FCA found.
Therese Chambers, joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: “A CEO needs to exercise sound judgment and set an example to staff at their firm. Mr Staley failed to do this.
“We consider that he misled both the FCA and the Barclays board about the nature of his relationship with Mr Epstein.
“Mr Staley is an experienced industry professional and held a prominent position within financial services.
“It is right to prevent him from holding a senior position in the financial services industry if we cannot rely on him to act with integrity by disclosing uncomfortable truths about his close personal relationship with Mr Epstein.”
The FCA’s decision is provisional and Mr Staley will present his case at a following tribunal.
Barclays said that following the FCA’s decision, it decided Mr Staley was ineligible for, or would forfeit, bonuses and share awards totalling £17.8m.
The banking giant had already suspended all of Mr Staley’s deferred bonuses and long-term share awards while the watchdog investigated.
Mr Staley has previously said he “deeply regrets” his relationship with Epstein, who killed himself in a federal jail in 2019; he faced federal charges accusing him of paying under-age girls hundreds of dollars in cash for massages and then molesting them at his homes in Florida and New York.
Mr Staley said he had no contact with Epstein once he joined Barclays in December 2015; earlier that year, he and his wife sailed to Esptein’s private island in the Caribbean for lunch.
Last month, JP Morgan Chase said it had agreed to pay $75m (£61m) to the US Virgin Islands to settle claims that the bank enabled the sex-trafficking acts committed by Epstein. The Virgin Islands had sued the American banking giant, arguing that it was complicit in the billionaire’s behaviour. The settlements averted a trial that had been due to start this month.
JP Morgan also reached a confidential settlement with Mr Staley, whom it had sued for allegedly concealing his personal activities with Epstein from it.
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