Top banker Jes Staley, a former high-level executive with Barclays and JPMorgan, has been accused of helping deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein run his international sex trafficking ring.
Thousands of emails between the two men have emerged in a lawsuit that alleges Staley served as an “operative” in Epstein’s operation.
The lawsuit claims that Staley and Epstein had a “profound friendship.”
The filing was made this week in an amended complaint by the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Late last month, prosecutors in the Caribbean U.S. territory sued JPMorgan over the bank’s ties to Epstein.
However, as Slay News reported, the attorney general of the U.S. Virgin Islands was fired just days after vowing to expose Epstein’s powerful friends and accomplices.
AG Denise George was reportedly “terminated” by the territory’s governor during Democrat President Joe Biden’s official visit to the islands last week.
Staley, 66, worked at JPMorgan until 2013.
“Between 2008 and 2012, Staley exchanged approximately 1,200 emails with Epstein from his JP Morgan email account,” the amendment alleges.
During that time, the bank “serviced approximately 55 Epstein-related accounts collectively worth hundreds of millions of dollars.”
Staley quit Barclays in November 2021.
He departed after the bank’s board said it was “disappointed” with the outcome of a report into his links to convicted sex offender Epstein.
“These communications show a close personal relationship and ‘profound’ friendship between the two men and even suggest that Staley may have been involved in Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation,” the amendment continues. ‘
They also reveal that Staley corresponded with Epstein while Epstein was incarcerated for child sex crimes, according to The Daily Beast.
He also visited Epstein’s Virgin Islands residence on multiple occasions.
Epstein infamously owned a private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands called Little St. James.
However, it was known unofficially by locals and authorities as “Pedophile Island.”
The island is the location where multiple victims have said much of the abuse by Epstein and his friends occurred.
The U.S. Virgin Islands’ suit also claims that Staley was allowed “to remain a decision-maker on Epstein’s accounts” and even asked to discuss the historical, sordid sex trafficking and human trafficking allegations against him.
In addition, JPMorgan allegedly would make payments to “numerous women with Eastern European surnames who were publicly and internally identified as Epstein recruiters.”
These payments included a $600,000 payment to one Jane Doe who the pedophile “purchased” when she was just 14 years old.
The complaint goes on to say that Hyperion Air, who owned Epstein’s infamous “Lolita Express” private jet, also issued hundreds of thousands of dollars in checks payable to cash for fuel expenses.
“Many of these cash withdrawals either exceeded the $10,000 reporting threshold or were seemingly structured to avoid triggering the reporting requirement,” the lawsuit claims.
“This is particularly significant since it is well known that Epstein paid his victims in cash.”
Epstein is accused of misusing JPMorgan accounts for nonprofit organizations and used it to pay associates like Les Wexner, as well as ex-girlfriends.
Staley is often celebrated credited as a key supporter of the LGBTQ+ community within the US banking sector.
His brother Peter Staley founded Act Up, a New York–based AIDS activist group.
Peter went on to serve as a member of former President Bill Clinton’s National Task Force on AIDS Drug Development.
Jes Staley meanwhile was recognized for his efforts to make JP Morgan an LGBT-friendly company, having been a key figure in the building up of JP Morgan Pride.
In addition to his connections to former President Clinton, Staley has held Democratic Party fundraisers at his lavish New York apartment.
Staley’s relationship with Epstein has been under the microscope since revelations about the financier’s sex trafficking came to light.
He embarked on a “professional relationship” with Epstein in 2000, when he became head of JPMorgan’s private bank, of which Epstein was a client.
Epstein had been charged with sex crimes and pleaded guilty in 2008 to solicitation of prostitution.
A report by the New York Times in 2019 revealed how compliance officers at JPMorgan Chase conducted a sweep of their wealthy clients in 2009.
According to the report, the compliance officers recommended that the bank cut its ties with Epstein because his accounts posed “unacceptable legal and reputational risks.”
However, he remained a JPMorgan client until 2013.
Staley also admitted he maintained contact with Epstein for seven years after his 2008 conviction.
He said his last contact with Epstein was in fall 2015, when he and his wife sailed to Epstein’s private island for lunch. That trip occurred shortly before he joined Barclays. He said he had no contact with Epstein once he joined the bank in December 2015.
Epstein was found dead in a New York prison cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on child sex trafficking charges.
Barclays said the Financial Conduct Authority’s probe into Staley’s links to Epstein makes no findings that he saw, or was aware of, any of Epstein’s alleged crimes.
Speaking in February last year, Staley said: “For sure, with hindsight with what we know now, I deeply regret having any relationship with Jeffrey.”
