Jes Staley

James Edward "Jes" Staley ran JPMorgan's private bank while Jeffrey Epstein was a marquee client, then became chief executive of Barclays. The documented relationship is a mix of internal emails, cash-withdrawal warnings, a British regulatory ban for misleading the FCA about how close the two men were, and a House Oversight transcribed interview published on August 26, 2026. Staley has denied knowing about Epstein's crimes. He has not been charged criminally in the United States.

  JPMorgan and the accounts

Epstein banked at JPMorgan from 1998 until the firm closed the relationship in 2013. Unsealed litigation records show Staley as the senior champion for keeping the accounts, including after the Palm Beach conviction. Compliance staff had tagged Epstein high-risk. Cash withdrawals in the thousands of dollars a month, wires to associates named in court filings, and aviation payments sat in the same files. For the bank-level record, see JPMorgan Chase.

Staley left JPMorgan for BlueMountain Capital in January 2013 and remained in contact with Epstein. He joined Barclays in December 2015.¹

  Barclays and the FCA ban

After Epstein's 2019 arrest, Barclays sent the FCA a letter stating that Staley did not have a close relationship with Epstein and that contact had ended well before he joined the bank. The FCA found both statements misleading. Emails showed Staley calling Epstein one of his deepest and most cherished friends and remaining in contact in the days before Barclays announced his appointment. Staley resigned in November 2021. He fought the proposed ban. The Upper Tribunal dismissed the reference in June 2025, calling the evidence of a close relationship overwhelming, and the FCA issued its final notice the following month.²³

At the March 2025 tribunal Staley described a sexual encounter around 2010 with a member of Epstein's staff in an apartment he associated with Epstein's brother. He said the encounter was consensual. That testimony is a regulatory record about his own conduct, not a finding about Mark Epstein.⁴

  House Oversight interview

The committee published the redacted transcript on August 26, 2026. The session is dated July 24. Staley appeared voluntarily with counsel.

Lawmakers asked about large cash withdrawals from Epstein's JPMorgan accounts, internal compliance warnings, and whether bankers had coached Epstein on how to take cash through entities rather than personal accounts. Staley said he believed he had told Epstein that the bank was concerned about the withdrawals and that Epstein had been designated a high-risk client. He denied that the point of those conversations was to help Epstein evade scrutiny. Asked whether the bank sat on red flags for years, he answered, "Seems like it." He agreed that by early 2011 JPMorgan already suspected Epstein of sex trafficking, while disputing an internal email line that attributed the decision to keep the client to Staley's personal relationship.⁵⁶

He also acknowledged sharing confidential bank information with Epstein, including Federal Reserve communications during the 2008 crisis, private-bank inflow figures, his own compensation, and details of pending deals. He said he believed he had authority to share what he considered appropriate. He maintained that he did not know Epstein was committing crimes.⁷

Committee staff put to him an allegation that he had sexually assaulted women connected to Epstein. He denied those allegations, including any sexual encounter with a woman associated in emails with the name "Snow White." He repeated the account of one intimate encounter with an adult assistant around 2009 or 2010, which he described as consensual.⁵⁸

Senator Ron Wyden's August 4, 2026 staff report named Staley among JPMorgan bankers whose handling of Epstein accounts, in Wyden's view, merits investigation. That is a Senate-staff recommendation, not a charge or a finding of criminal proceeds. JPMorgan has said it began flagging suspicious transactions as early as 2002. See the Wyden discussion on the JPMorgan page.⁹

Staley remains uncharged in the United States. The FCA prohibition and the 2026 transcript document the regulatory findings and his account to Congress.

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  References

  Footnotes

1. James E. Staley to Join BlueMountain, company announcement, January 8, 2013 ↩

2. Upper Tribunal upholds Jes Staley ban, Financial Conduct Authority, July 23, 2025 ↩

3. Ex-Barclays CEO Staley loses appeal against UK ban over Epstein ties, Reuters, June 26, 2025 ↩

4. Jes Staley admits sex in Epstein case, The Guardian, March 12, 2025 ↩

5. Jes Staley transcribed interview, House Oversight Committee, dated July 24, 2026, published August 26, 2026 ↩ ↩²

6. Takeaways From Jes Staley's Testimony About Epstein to Congress, Wall Street Journal, August 27, 2026 ↩

7. Former JPMorgan executive Staley says he shared confidential bank information with Epstein, Reuters, August 26, 2026 ↩

8. Oversight Committee Releases Jes Staley Transcript, House Oversight Committee, August 26, 2026 ↩

9. Looking the Other Way, Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, August 4, 2026 ↩