Senator Elizabeth Warren is pressing Barclays for urgent clarity on what she calls the bank's failure to uncover the extent of former CEO Jes Staley's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, the deceased financier convicted of sex trafficking.
In a letter to Barclays chair Nigel Higgins, Warren, the senior Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, alongside House members Ro Khanna and Raja Krishnamoorthi, demands answers within two weeks on how the bank handled due diligence regarding Staley's connection to Epstein before he was appointed chief executive in 2015.
The lawmakers seized on revelations from a UK court hearing last year where Staley fought and lost an appeal against a ban from British banking. Court filings showed that Higgins never directly asked Staley when his contact with Epstein had ended before Higgins assured regulators the last contact occurred well before Staley joined Barclays.
"It appears that neither you nor any other member of the board conducted any deeper due diligence to verify Staley's claims and simply took him at his word," the letter states. The lawmakers questioned what specific investigative steps Barclays actually took into the two men's personal relationship.
The inquiry targets governance lapses at a major financial institution. The letter warns that Barclays' operations in the US, where it holds roughly $200 billion in assets, depend on maintaining high standards of executive character and fitness. Operating a banking license in America is a privilege contingent on the bank's ability to run itself safely and soundly, the senators write.
Staley and Epstein first connected around 2000 when Staley headed JP Morgan's private bank and Epstein was a client. After taking the Barclays top job in 2015, Staley stepped down in 2021 following a regulatory investigation into the relationship. He was ultimately barred from UK financial work for understating those ties, which Barclays itself had vouched for in a 2019 letter to regulators.
The court battle revealed the depth of their friendship and exposed other details about Staley's conduct, including admissions about personal involvement with Epstein staff members. Staley also forfeited roughly 18 million pounds in pay and bonuses tied to his Barclays role.
Barclays has responded by asserting that regulators found the bank itself was misled by Staley. A bank spokesperson said new information emerged after Staley's departure proving he gave false accounts of the relationship to Barclays and others, with activities predating his employment at the bank coming to light only later.
The letter arrived hours before Staley was set for a closed-door grilling by the House Oversight Committee, where Khanna and Krishnamoorthi both serve.
Author James Rodriguez: "Warren is right to demand real answers, not the convenient excuse that Barclays was duped, especially when board members never bothered asking basic questions."
Comments