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Jes Staley has failed to overturn a decision by the Financial Conduct Authority that he “recklessly” misled the regulator about his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, in a major setback to the former chief executive of Barclays.
In a judgment handed down on Thursday by the Upper Tribunal, Judge Timothy Herrington said Staley’s behaviour represented a “serious failure of judgment” and he had “acted without integrity” by approving a misleading letter from the bank to its regulator.
The judge, however, ordered that the £1.8mn fine imposed on Staley by the regulator be reduced by 40 per cent to reflect the fact that Barclays had not allowed him to receive deferred shares that he was entitled to.
The former Barclays boss had mounted a legal challenge against the ban and fine imposed on him by the FCA in 2023, with a high-profile trial taking place in March.
Herrington found that Staley had approved a Barclays letter to regulators that he knew contained inaccuracies over the nature of his relationship with Epstein, and that Staley’s “conduct was such that it could have resulted in confidence in the financial system being adversely affected”.
The judgment also found that Staley had “shown no remorse for his conduct”.
At the heart of the dispute were two representations made by Barclays in a letter the bank sent to regulators in October 2019, which stated that Staley “did not have a close relationship” with Epstein and that they last communicated “well before he joined Barclays in 2015”.
The FCA opened an investigation into Staley two months later, after his former employer JPMorgan Chase told the regulator it had a trove of documents regarding his relationship with Epstein, which the FCA compelled the US bank to hand over.
“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,” the judgment read. “The loss of his long-standing career is an inevitable consequence of that conduct.”
A request to Staley’s lawyer to comment was not immediately returned. Barclays declined to comment.
Therese Chambers, joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said Staley had taken “a calculated risk” and “hoped that the truth would never come to light and that he would get away with it”. She added: “Such a serious lack of integrity flies in the face of the requirements we place on those at the top.”
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