By Nupur Anand
NEW YORK, Aug 26 (Reuters) – Former JPMorgan Chase executive Jes Staley told U.S. lawmakers he repeatedly shared confidential and market-sensitive bank information with Jeffrey Epstein and was at one point named as a trustee of his estate, according to a transcript released by the U.S. Congress House Oversight Committee.
These admissions come as lawmakers probe the late convicted sex offender’s ties with political and business elites. Staley appeared before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in July as part of its investigation into Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell. Transcripts from the meeting were released on Wednesday.
In the closed-door, voluntary interview conducted on July 24, Staley said he divulged to Epstein the bank’s communications with the Federal Reserve during the 2008 financial crisis, a figure of $44 billion in private bank inflows over two weeks, his own compensation, and details of pending deals.
Staley also admitted to sharing other confidential information about JPMorgan with Epstein, according to the transcript.
Lawmakers also questioned him about communications in which he discussed matters including his compensation, client relationships and developments related to his eventual move to Barclays.
Staley defended the exchanges, saying he believed he had the authority to share information when he considered it appropriate. He has maintained he had a close professional relationship with Epstein, but was unaware of his crimes.
He also testified that he informed Epstein about the bank’s concerns over his large cash withdrawals and told him he had been designated a high-risk client.
JPMorgan declined to comment. Staley’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Staley spent more than three decades at JPMorgan, where he ran the private bank and asset-management business for which Epstein was a client, before leading Barclays from 2015 until his resignation in 2021.
Separately, he also confirmed he had been appointed to a role in connection with Epstein’s estate years after his 2008 conviction.
He said he signed documents related to the Epstein trust in 2014 and a trust amendment in 2015, but later declined to serve because he did not want to be associated with the estate and did not receive any compensation for it.
The disclosures add new detail to scrutiny of the relationship between Staley and Epstein, the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges. He had extensive ties to many prominent people in politics, finance, academia and business, including U.S. President Donald Trump.
The oversight committee has interviewed figures such as former President Bill Clinton, current Commerce Secretary and former Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, as well as Goldman Sachs senior counsel Kathy Ruemmler.
(Reporting by Nupur Anand in New York; Editing by Stephen Coates)
Comments