Staley and Dimon in Epstein war of words: Two of the biggest figures in banking set the stage for a showdown

By LEAH MONTEBELLO FOR THE DAILY MAIL

Updated:

Two of the world's biggest figures in banking have set the stage for a showdown over convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Former Barclays chief executive Jes Staley says in court documents that he told his then boss – JP Morgan chief Jamie Dimon – about the bank's business with convicted sex offender Epstein.

Staley, who ran JP Morgan's private banking arm, said Dimon communicated with him when Epstein was arrested in 2006 and, in 2008, when Epstein pleaded guilty to procuring a child for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute, according to legal documents seen by the Wall Street Journal.

Epstein was dropped as a client in 2013.

But Dimon maintains that he has no recollection of discussing or reviewing Epstein's accounts and does not believe such conversations with Staley took place. 'There is no evidence that any such communications ever occurred – nothing in the voluminous number of documents reviewed and nothing in the nearly dozen depositions taken, including that of our own chief executive,' a spokesman for the Wall Street bank said.

At odds: Jes Staley and Jamie Dimon are in a war of words over Jeffrey Epstein
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At odds: Jes Staley and Jamie Dimon are in a war of words over Jeffrey Epstein

'The one person who claims this to be true is currently accused of horrific acts and dishonesty.'

Staley, who left JP Morgan to become chief executive of Barclays, had to step down from the British bank in 2021 after a probe by regulators into his relationship with Epstein.

JP Morgan is being sued over its ties to the disgraced billionaire and is accused of knowingly benefiting from his sex trafficking.

Separately, JP Morgan has sued Staley, claiming that he misled executives about Epstein.

Staley's lawyers have said the allegations are baseless and he has denied that he knew of Epstein's alleged trafficking. Last month Dimon said he regretted his bank's ties to the late financier and paedophile Epstein.

'I am so sad that we had any relation to that man whatsoever,' he told Bloomberg TV. He said the bank would have done things 'differently' if it had known about Epstein's behaviour.

Epstein became a JP Morgan client in around 1998 and, over the years, the bank managed dozens of Epstein-related accounts containing hundreds of millions of dollars, according to the lawsuits.

Epstein died in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

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