A new report has revealed details surrounding Jeffrey Epstein’s ties to JPMorgan Chase, one of the largest banking institutions in the world, and specifically highlighted the financier's ties to former JPMorgan executive Jes Staley.
Epstein was arrested in 2019 on federal sex-trafficking charges, and died that same year in jail before he was tried in court over sex trafficking charges. The 20-plus internal report was reportedly prepared after news broke of Epstein’s arrest in 2019.
According to reports based on the USVI lawsuit, Epstein and Staley had close ties and exchanged hundreds of emails before Staley left JPMorgan in 2013 and went on to become the CEO of Barclays. Some of those emails included “young women in seductive poses,” the report claims.
“That was fun. Say hi to Snow White,” Staley reportedly wrote in a July 2010 email to Epstein. Epstein responded: “[W]hat character would you like next?” to which Staley replied, “Beauty and the Beast.”
Staley has claimed he was not aware of Epstein’s crimes, and ended the friendship before becoming Barclays CEO. The report also noted Esptein offered to help one of Staley’s daughters in applying to graduate schools, including Columbia University. The college has claimed there was no meeting between “the [school's] president and Staley,” “nor did the president know Epstein, then or later.”
“You have paid a price for what has been accused,” Staley wrote Epstein in 2011 - two years after soliciting prostitution charges were first filed against Epstein in Florida, according to an email in the report. “But we know what u have done for us. And we count you as one of our deepest friends. And most honest of people.”
The report also reveals ties between Epstein and other people in power, including Dubai’s Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem and Peter Mandelson, a British politician. Citing the report, US media reported that Epstein then tried to connect both Mandelson and Sulayem to Staley, as well as JPMorgan, for business deals and international expansions.
While Sulayem has not responded to requests for comment, Mandelson, a member of the House of Lords, told US media that his connections to Epstein were not a secret and that he “very much regrets ever having been introduced to Epstein."