US Senator Elizabeth Warren has written to Barclays, calling for urgent answers over the bank's apparent failure to investigate its former CEO Jes Staley's ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. In a letter sent to Barclays' chair, Nigel Higgins, Warren claimed it was 'deeply unclear' how the bank failed to uncover the decades-long relationship between Staley and Epstein.
The letter, which was also signed by Congress members Ro Khanna and Raja Krishnamoorthi, raised concerns about information arising from a UK court hearing last year. The hearing revealed intimate details of the friendship between Staley and Epstein, including Higgins' admission that he had not asked Staley about his last contact with Epstein before declaring to the Financial Conduct Authority that the last contact had been 'well before' Staley joined Barclays.
The US lawmakers questioned whether the bank conducted any reviews into 'deficiencies' in its executive hiring process, which had 'allowed the board to hire a CEO who held extensive professional and personal ties to a convicted sex offender'. They also warned that it was a 'privilege' to hold local banking licences and operate in the US, where Barclays has 'extensive' operations and holds about £150bn in assets.
Staley originally met Epstein in 2000, after he became head of JP Morgan's private bank, where Epstein was a client. He later took over as chief executive of Barclays in 2015, but was forced to step down in 2021, after City regulators launched an investigation into the nature of the relationship between the two men.
A spokesperson for Barclays said: 'The UK regulator concluded that Barclays was misled by Jes Staley. We conducted an investigation based on the information that was available to us at the time.'