NEW YORK (CNN) – Former Barclays CEO Jes Staley has allegedly exchanged sexually suggestive emails with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, some of which included photos of young women, newly unsealed passages of a federal lawsuit reveal.
Those email exchanges are said to have continued long after Epstein was convicted of sex crimes in 2008, the US Virgin Islands government wrote in its complaint against JPMorgan Chase, where Staley previously worked as a top executive.
Staley was the person largely responsible for JPMorgan Chase’s 15-year financial relationship with Epstein. He later became CEO of Barclays but resigned in 2021 amid investigations into the bank’s Epstein deals. He is not a defendant in the lawsuit and has not been criminally charged with any Epstein-related activity. A London-based lawyer for Staley declined to comment on the lawsuit or his relationship with Epstein.
The original complaint, filed in December, was heavily redacted. But the amended complaint, released by the US Virgin Islands government on Wednesday, supports claims from the earlier filing that Staley exchanged more than 1,000 emails between 2008 and 2012 from his email account at JPMorgan Chase and Corresponded with Epstein during his incarceration and visited his residence in the Virgin Islands on several occasions.
“These releases demonstrate a close personal relationship and ‘deep’ friendship between the two men and even suggest that Staley may have been involved in Epstein’s sex trafficking,” US Virgin Islands attorneys said in the amended lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase.
The lawsuit alleges that JPMorgan Chase “saw Epstein’s sex trade more than up close” and “ignored obvious red flags regarding Epstein’s accounts.”
Both JPMorgan Chase and Barclays declined to comment on the newly unsealed passages. But after the US Virgin Islands Attorney General sued JPMorgan Chase in December – claiming that the bank should have known of Epstein’s activities on Little St James Island, the island he owned off the coast of St Thomas – the bank requested that the lawsuit be dismissed.
In a filing dated February 1, the bank’s lawyers wrote: “[The US Virgin Islands’] Lamentation is a master class in distraction that seeks to last [JPMorgan Chase] Responsible for Epstein’s crimes going undetected over a decade ago.”
New details revealed
In the newly unsealed passages, the US Virgin Islands government alleges Staley sent emails from Epstein’s island in the fall of 2009 while Epstein was being imprisoned in Florida.
“So when all hell breaks loose l[o]ose, and the world is crumbling, I’ll come here and be at peace,” Staley allegedly said in the email. “Right now I’m in the hot tub with a glass of white wine. This is an amazing place. Truly amazing. Next time we’ll be here together. I owe you a lot And I value our friendship very much. I have few that are so profound.”
A month later, Staley allegedly sent another email to Epstein: “I am aware of the danger of sending this email. But it was great to give you a long, warm hug in New York City today.”
Epstein reportedly responded by sending a photo of a young woman, with the image being redacted in the lawsuit.
In July 2010, the filing alleges that Staley emailed Epstein saying, “Say hello to Snow White.” Epstein replied, “[W]Which character do you want next?” When Staley said “Beauty and the Beast,” Epstein replied, “Well, a side is available.” Virgin Islands Attorneys Claiming references to Disney princesses are code words for young women.
JPMorgan Chase has not flagged any of the emails between Epstein and Staley related to underwriting, according to the lawsuit: “Furthermore, JPMorgan Chase has allowed Staley to remain a decision maker for Epstein’s accounts. JP Morgan Chase even hired Staley to discuss the human trafficking allegations with Epstein.”
Last November, Attorney General Denise George settled the US Virgin Islands lawsuit against Epstein’s estate for more than $105 million, along with an agreement that the estate would sell the Epstein Islands in the territory and cease operations there.
Epstein was found dead in his prison cell in 2019. A coroner ruled his death a suicide.
When he died, Epstein was awaiting trial on federal charges alleging he operated a sex trafficking ring from 2002 to 2005 at his Manhattan mansion and Palm Beach estate and allegedly paid girls as young as 14 for sex .
According to The New York Times, Staley has said in the past that while he was friends with Epstein, he never knew of the allegations beyond Epstein’s guilty plea.