Former Barclays CEO Jes Staley is set to appear before Capitol Hill on Thursday, where he will answer questions from U.S. lawmakers regarding his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted financier and sex offender.
Staley is the latest in a series of current and former Wall Street executives facing congressional scrutiny over their connections to Epstein.
Last week, Kathy Ruemmler, former chief legal officer at Goldman Sachs, participated in a closed-door interview with the House Oversight Committee. She told lawmakers that thousands of emails exchanged with Epstein had been taken out of context and misinterpreted.
The committee also issued two legally binding subpoenas last month to Leon Black, co-founder of Apollo Global Management, compelling him to provide information after lawmakers said he had refused to answer their questions.
The Financial Times first reported that Staley had agreed to testify before the committee after its Republican chairman, James Comer, requested his appearance.
In a letter sent to Staley earlier this year, Comer said lawmakers believe the former banking executive possesses information that could assist the committee’s investigation into how the U.S. government handled the Epstein case.
Before becoming CEO of Barclays, Staley led JPMorgan’s private wealth and asset management divisions, where Epstein was one of his most prominent clients. Staley later acknowledged that the two had been “very close” and at one point described Epstein as a “friend.”
The congressional committee has been investigating the federal government’s handling of the Epstein case for more than a year. The inquiry is separate from the U.S. Department of Justice’s effort to release more than 3 million pages of documents related to Epstein, who was found dead in his jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.
Documents released by the Justice Department late last year revealed new details about the relationship between Staley and Epstein, including that the former banker had been designated by Epstein as the executor of his estate.
According to those documents, Staley was first named in January 2012 as a successor executor, meaning he would assume responsibility for administering Epstein’s estate if the primary executors were unable to serve. His name also appeared as an executor in two subsequent wills dated September 2013 and November 2014.
Last year, Staley failed to overturn a lifetime ban imposed by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), preventing him from working in the financial services industry.
During a two-week court hearing in London, Staley was questioned about a series of intimate emails exchanged with Epstein, including messages in which the two referred to each other as family, as well as whether he had agreed to serve as executor of Epstein’s estate.
Staley told the court that he had declined Epstein’s request to take on that role. However, that claim appears to be contradicted by the Justice Department documents released late last year.
