Emails Reveal Deep Ties Between Jeffrey Epstein, Former Barclays CEO Jes Staley

“I owe you much. And I deeply appreciate our friendship. I have few so profound,” Mr. Staley emailed Epstein in 2009, according to court documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. That year, Epstein completed a sentence for soliciting a minor for prostitution. 

Mr. Staley resigned from Barclays in November 2021 amid a British regulatory investigation into whether the bank had been truthful about his relationship with Epstein.

Mr. Staley has maintained he was friendly with Epstein but never knew about his alleged crimes and ended the friendship before he became Barclays CEO.

The U.K. probe concluded that Mr. Staley provided an incomplete picture of his relationship with Epstein to Barclays, which relayed the information about the two men’s ties to the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority, The Wall Street Journal reported at the time. Mr. Staley was planning to contest the conclusion. Barclays has said its own probe found no evidence Mr. Staley knew about Epstein’s alleged crimes.

A lawyer for Mr. Staley and representatives for JPMorgan and Barclays declined to comment Thursday.

The U.S. Virgin Islands is suing JPMorgan, alleging the bank facilitated Epstein’s alleged sex-trafficking, including at his island home, by allowing him access to bank accounts and approving transfers he used to pay young women. The suit says the bank approved payments by Epstein to at least 20 young women or girls who were victims of Epstein. 

JPMorgan has said it didn’t facilitate any possible crimes committed by Epstein. The U.S. Virgin Islands, the bank has said, should have stopped Epstein. 

The emails revealed by the U.S. Virgin Islands show Epstein sending Mr. Staley photos of young women and discussing trips to the island where Epstein had allegedly trafficked young women. The photos, which the suit describes as featuring “young women in seductive poses,” are redacted. 

“That was fun. Say hi to Snow White,” Mr. Staley wrote in a July 2010 email to Epstein, according to court documents. 

Epstein responded: “[W]hat character would you like next?” and Mr. Staley replied, “Beauty and the Beast.”

The suit also alleges Epstein wired money to a woman after Mr. Staley stayed at Epstein’s Palm Beach, Fla., mansion and then again to the same woman when Mr. Staley told Epstein he would be in London.

The suit also alleges that Mr. Staley vouched for Epstein as a client of JPMorgan when internal compliance officers raised questions. The bank’s compliance team repeatedly asked for reassurances after Epstein was first indicted on sex-crime charges in 2006, when he pleaded guilty to those charges in 2008, and in later years when news reports about similar behavior continued to surface, according to the court documents. 

JPMorgan has said it cut off Epstein’s accounts in 2013, shortly after Mr. Staley left the bank. Epstein died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges.

—Josh Mitchell contributed to this article.

“I owe you much. And I deeply appreciate our friendship. I have few so profound,” Mr. Staley emailed Epstein in 2009, according to court documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. That year, Epstein completed a sentence for soliciting a minor for prostitution. 

Mr. Staley resigned from Barclays in November 2021 amid a British regulatory investigation into whether the bank had been truthful about his relationship with Epstein.

Mr. Staley has maintained he was friendly with Epstein but never knew about his alleged crimes and ended the friendship before he became Barclays CEO.

The U.K. probe concluded that Mr. Staley provided an incomplete picture of his relationship with Epstein to Barclays, which relayed the information about the two men’s ties to the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority, The Wall Street Journal reported at the time. Mr. Staley was planning to contest the conclusion. Barclays has said its own probe found no evidence Mr. Staley knew about Epstein’s alleged crimes.

A lawyer for Mr. Staley and representatives for JPMorgan and Barclays declined to comment Thursday.

The U.S. Virgin Islands is suing JPMorgan, alleging the bank facilitated Epstein’s alleged sex-trafficking, including at his island home, by allowing him access to bank accounts and approving transfers he used to pay young women. The suit says the bank approved payments by Epstein to at least 20 young women or girls who were victims of Epstein. 

JPMorgan has said it didn’t facilitate any possible crimes committed by Epstein. The U.S. Virgin Islands, the bank has said, should have stopped Epstein. 

The emails revealed by the U.S. Virgin Islands show Epstein sending Mr. Staley photos of young women and discussing trips to the island where Epstein had allegedly trafficked young women. The photos, which the suit describes as featuring “young women in seductive poses,” are redacted. 

“That was fun. Say hi to Snow White,” Mr. Staley wrote in a July 2010 email to Epstein, according to court documents. 

Epstein responded: “[W]hat character would you like next?” and Mr. Staley replied, “Beauty and the Beast.”

The suit also alleges Epstein wired money to a woman after Mr. Staley stayed at Epstein’s Palm Beach, Fla., mansion and then again to the same woman when Mr. Staley told Epstein he would be in London.

The suit also alleges that Mr. Staley vouched for Epstein as a client of JPMorgan when internal compliance officers raised questions. The bank’s compliance team repeatedly asked for reassurances after Epstein was first indicted on sex-crime charges in 2006, when he pleaded guilty to those charges in 2008, and in later years when news reports about similar behavior continued to surface, according to the court documents. 

JPMorgan has said it cut off Epstein’s accounts in 2013, shortly after Mr. Staley left the bank. Epstein died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges.

—Josh Mitchell contributed to this article.