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Jes Staley sent an email to his daughter referring to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein as “uncle Jeffrey”, a court heard on Wednesday, as the ex-Barclays boss attempts to challenge regulators’ allegations that he played down his ties to the late financier.
In a tense hearing in London, during which Staley accused the Financial Conduct Authority of an “invasion” of his family’s privacy, the court heard that Epstein had mentored Alexa Staley and allegedly helped her apply to Columbia University, which Staley vigorously denied.
“I think there’s an invasion of my family here and I resent it,” he said during cross-examination from Leigh-Ann Mulcahy KC for the FCA, who showed him emails in which he appeared to have shared his daughter’s academic scores with Epstein.
The court heard that Staley forwarded an email he had received from Epstein in April 2009 to Alexa, in which the sex offender proposed that he introduce her to prominent individuals in the science world over lunch. Staley told his daughter that the email “is from uncle Jeffrey”.
Months earlier Epstein faced allegations from prosecutors that he paid multiple women, some of them underage, for massages that ended in sexual activity. Epstein had pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting prostitution and was sentenced to 18 months in jail. Staley has acknowledged that he visited Epstein during the latter’s work release from custody.
The FCA does not allege that Staley, who quit Barclays in 2021, was involved in or aware of Epstein’s criminality.
The FCA is seeking to prove that Staley’s ties to Epstein went beyond that of a professional relationship and that Barclays’ characterisation of their relationship as “not close” in a letter requested by the regulator in August 2019 was misleading.
Epstein died in a New York prison cell earlier that month after being charged with sex trafficking.
Mulcahy had earlier shown Staley an email he sent to Epstein in March 2011, in which he wrote: “Debbie [Staley’s wife] and I were talking tonight about what you have meant to me and to Alexa. You paid a price for what has been accused but we know what you have done for us . . . we count you as one of our deepest friends and most honest people.”
His daughter had attended a party hosted by Epstein in 2012 and attended a conference with him in Vancouver at his invitation, the FCA alleged.
The court has previously heard during the high-profile trial that Staley told a senior Barclays colleague that he never would have introduced his family to a paedophile.
The court heard on Wednesday that Staley had engaged in consensual sexual intercourse with a woman on Epstein’s staff at an apartment owned by his brother, Mark Epstein.
Staley maintained he did not know at the time that the apartment was owned by Epstein’s brother and said he had not told the late Epstein about the liaison, which he described as an “embarrassment”.
Mulcahy also referenced several emails in which Epstein and Staley referred to each other as family, including an exchange between Epstein and the UK’s Prince Andrew, in which Epstein wrote: “I know you were seeing Jes Staley this morning, he’s like family and can be trusted 100%.”
Staley said Epstein had helped make important introductions for him within the UK government, as well as with the British royal family. Staley and Prince Andrew — whose own ties to Epstein have cast a pall over the House of Windsor — had dinner together in June 2010, according to evidence presented to the court.
Mulcahy also asked Staley about a now-infamous email exchange between him and Epstein that references Disney princesses.
“Say hi to Snow White,” Staley wrote to Epstein in July 2010, to which he received a response saying “[W]hat character would you like next?”
“Beauty and the Beast,” Staley replied.
The banker has consistently maintained that he does not remember to whom the emails referred.
Asked again about them in court, Staley conceded that the exchange was “unusual”, but maintained that he was not able to explain what it meant.
When pressed by the FCA’s barrister on what they could be referring to, Staley continuously repeated, “I don’t recall the emails”.
Mulcahy listed his support for Epstein following his 2008 conviction, his visits to Epstein’s various properties and island, flights on Epstein’s private jet, assistance Epstein gave to Staley and his family, and the type of information the men shared as proof that the characterisation in Barclays’ letter of the pair’s relationship as “not close” was inaccurate.
Staley said: “I have never walked away from using the word close.”
This article has been updated since publication to clarify when the FCA sought information from Barclays
