Barclays Chairman said he did not ask Jes Staley that he was “well” before announcing the last contact between the former boss and child sex offenders to the regulator, and he joined the bank.
Nigel Higgins admitted he did not ask about the contacts of the two, nor the exact date of their last meeting, and then tried to assure the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) that he was not concerned about the nature of the Staley and Epstein relationship.
The FCA claims that while the two last face-to-face meeting was in April 2015, the two men continued to talk to each other, including via email, at Staley’s appointment as CEO of Barclays in October 2015.
“In an interview with the FCA, I was told (no basic evidence was obtained) that in October 2015, Mr Staley made email and telephone contact with Mr Epstein,” Higgins said in a witness statement submitted to the upper court. Higgins took over as chairman two years before his resignation in late 2021.
“I didn’t know that this was the answer to the FCA question at that time. I did not ask Mr. Staley’s date of last contact with Mr. Epstein. “Higgins said in a witness statement.
Higgins added that he did not “re-ask” what happened when they last meeting. Epstein awaited trial in jail in August 2019, accusing sexual trafficking of underage girls.
However, in October 2019, Barclays’ letter to the FCA, now at the center of the legal battle in the upper court, Epstein and Stelley “have no close relationship” and Stiley “before joining Barclays in 2015, the last contact with Mr. Epstein was outstanding before he joined Barclays”.
FCA attorneys claimed that its subsequent investigation was triggered by 1,200 emails obtained from Staley’s former employer JP Morgan, and found that the couple was “really intimate” and had a “relationship beyond professional nature.”
Higgins’ comments appeared in his appearance at the Rolls Building in London, where he had cross-examined Staley’s lawyers who were trying to overturn the FCA’s decision to ban the bank’s former CEO’s lifelong ban on his bank’s former CEO after allegedly misleading regulators with his relationship with later financiers and child sex offenders.
They believe that bank board members, including Higgins, are aware of the extent to which he has a relationship with the late financier.
Higgins told the court he had asked Staley about whether he was involved in Epstein’s criminal activities, even before the FCA approached Barclays’ access to information in August 2019.
“I do recall the effect of the wording, I just need to ask you because unfortunately my job, you just need to tell me, is there anything about you and these girls?” He told me not,” Higgins said.
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Higgins said he would have more “in-depth” questions about Staley’s relationship with Epstein if he realized that the couple’s relationship was not only “business-related”.
Higgins agreed with Staley’s lawyers saying the former Barclays boss wrote “feelingful” emails that seemed “strange” to the British as the court wrote an email from the hot tub to Staley to Epstein in court.
From that email that started in January 2009, it said: “So, when all hell losses are lost [sic] And the world is falling apart, I will come here to be peaceful, and I currently have a glass of white wine in the hot tub,” the court email said. It continued: “It’s an amazing place, it’s amazing, next time we’re together. I owe you a lot, I am deeply grateful, and I have very little friendship. ”
Evidence presented to the court last week showed former Bank of England governor and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney raised concerns about some emails in JP Morgan Cache during a December 2019 meeting with Higgins and Andrew Bailey. This includes an email involving Staley in the hot tub. Bailey, the current bank governor and former FCA chief, appeared in court at a hearing last week.
