Jes Staley

Former chief executive of Barclays Bank and earlier JPMorgan private banking head. Resigned from Barclays in November 2021 after the UK Financial Conduct Authority opened an investigation into the nature of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. The FCA found that Staley approved a letter to regulators in 2016 falsely describing his relationship with Epstein as merely professional and not close.

Internal emails between the two men showed Staley describing Epstein as one of his "deepest" and "most cherished" friends. Staley visited Epstein at a Florida jail during his 2008 sentence and at his Little St. James island in the U.S.

Virgin Islands on multiple occasions. During the FCA Upper Tribunal hearing in March 2025, Staley testified that he had a consensual sexual encounter with a young woman at an apartment belonging to Epstein's brother while waiting for Epstein to arrive for a meeting. CNN reported that Staley told the court the encounter was with an Epstein assistant.

On 26 June 2025 the Upper Tribunal upheld the FCA's finding that Staley had acted without integrity by misleading regulators. A Final Notice was issued on 23 July 2025 permanently banning Staley from holding senior management roles in the UK financial services industry and fining him 1.1 million pounds, reduced from the originally proposed 1.8 million pounds because Barclays had withheld deferred shares he would otherwise have received. The ban is one of the most significant regulatory consequences imposed on a FTSE 100 executive as a direct result of Epstein ties.