Questions for Barclays over Staley Epstein links, says ISS

17th Apr 2023 15:56

(Sharecast News) - An influential shareholder advisory group has recommended that the board of Barclays be re-elected, but with the caveat that it should face questions about its decision to back former boss Jes Staley despite his links to the dead paedophile Jeffrey Epstein

Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) said questions "can be posed now" about the judgment of the board between 2019 and 2021.

Epstein was a client of JP Morgan, the American bank where Staley had worked before being appointed chief executive of Barclays in 2015.

"While it is accepted that the board could only act on the information available to it at the time, there are questions over the judgment exercised during this period, given the particularly disturbing nature of the charges against Epstein, and their potential for reputational damage to the company," ISS said.

In a complex series of legal actions, JP Morgan has launched a lawsuit against Staley in response to two lawsuits aimed at the US bank that claim Staley "observed victims personally", including "visiting young girls at Epstein's apartments", and exchanged 1,200 emails with the late financier that included photos of young women in seductive poses.

The suits against JP Morgan have been brought by the US Virgin Islands, where much of the abuse is said to have taken place at a home owned by Epstein on a private island, and also by a woman known only as Jane Doe 1.

But the US bank is suing Staley in turn, saying he should be made liable for any penalties the US bank may face as a result of the lawsuits. It is also trying to claw back millions of dollars he was paid while working for JP Morgan.

Lawyers working for Staley have accused JP Morgan of "slanderous" attacks, saying the allegations were "baseless but serious".

A lawyer for Staley last week called the allegations about the former Barclays boss "slanderous" and "baseless".

Britain's Financial Conduct Authority and the Bank of England's Prudential Regulation Authority started an investigation in 2019 into the way Staley characterised his relationship with Epstein. The Barclays board stood by Staley in the face of this inquiry and had said he retained its "full confidence" when the investigation became public in February 2020.

Staley suddenly quit the bank in October 2021 to contest the regulators' preliminary findings, which are yet to be published.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com