Former Barclays CEO Jes Staley lost his fight to overturn the Financial Conduct Authority of the United Kingdom’s decision to bar him from senior management positions in the financial services sector for lying to the agency about his connections to convicted sexual offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Judge Timothy Herrington affirmed the FCA’s decision in a ruling issued Thursday by the Upper Tribunal, the senior court of record in the United Kingdom with standing equal to the High Court. Herrington stated that the ban was “an inevitable consequence” of Staley’s misbehavior.
The letter, which was endorsed by Staley, was delivered to the FCA in 2019 by Barclays (BCS) chair Nigel Higgins. It stated that the chief executive “did not have a close relationship” with Epstein and that their last communication was “well before” Staley joined the U.K. bank in 2015.
The FCA’s job is to control how financial services companies behave.
But when his former employer, JPMorgan (JPM), turned over hundreds of emails showing Staley’s relationship with Epstein was closer and longer-lasting than the Barclays letter had suggested, the letter’s assertions were refuted.
In 2023, the FCA banned Staley and fined him GBP1.8 million (about to $2.5 million in today’s currency) for being “recklessly” false. Staley was not accused by the FCA of taking part in Epstein’s crimes.
Herrington ruled in favor of the FCA on Thursday, stating that the bank executive’s actions constituted a “serious failure of judgment” and that he had “acted without integrity” by approving a deceptive letter from the bank to its regulator. Staley had sued the FCA to reverse its decision.
“Mr. Staley took a calculated risk that we would take his inaccurate account of his relationship with Mr. Epstein at face value,” said Therese Chambers, FCA’s joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight, in a statement applauding the Upper Tribunal’s decision. He wished that he would get away with it and that the truth would never be discovered. The standards we set for people at the top are completely at odds with such a grave lack of honesty.”
“The Tribunal’s decision shows that we can and will act to protect the financial system by holding those in senior roles to the high standards required of them,” Chambers said.
However, because Barclays chose not to grant Staley the deferred shares to which he could have been entitled after the FCA handed its punishment, the Upper Tribunal did lower the amount imposed on Staley to GBP1.1 million.
