Jes Staley Epstein ties face House scrutiny over JPMorgan client warnings
James Comer said Jes Staley backed keeping Jeffrey Epstein at JPMorgan despite internal red flags, as House investigators questioned him privately.
By Marcus V. Thorne · Markets Editor
· 3 min read
House investigators questioned former JPMorgan Chase executive Jes Staley on Thursday about Jes Staley Epstein ties, focusing on whether the banker pressed the firm to keep Jeffrey Epstein as a client despite internal warnings. The closed-door interview added congressional scrutiny to a matter that has already led to large legal settlements for JPMorgan and regulatory action against Staley in the U.K.
House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, told CNBC outside the interview that records indicated JPMorgan had “red flags” about Epstein while Staley was defending him and encouraging the bank to retain him as a customer. Comer said the committee had “a lot of questions” about that issue.
The committee is examining Epstein’s relationships with prominent figures. Epstein, a convicted sex offender, was a JPMorgan client during a period when Staley worked at the bank, according to the account provided by Comer and records cited by regulators.
What did lawmakers ask Jes Staley about Epstein?
The central issue for lawmakers was Staley’s role inside JPMorgan while Epstein remained a client. Comer said the committee wanted to understand why Staley supported Epstein’s continued relationship with the bank when concerns had already been raised internally.
Staley spent more than three decades at JPMorgan and served as Epstein’s private banker. In that role, he was the banker most closely associated with the client relationship, making his conduct relevant to congressional questions about how the bank handled warnings tied to Epstein.
Records cited by U.K. regulators described a close personal relationship between Staley and Epstein over a period of years. Those regulators referred to more than 1,000 emails between the two men, including messages in which Staley described the friendship as “profound” and referred to Epstein as “family.”
Staley later became chief executive of Barclays. He resigned from that post in 2021 during a dispute with British regulators over how he had described his relationship with Epstein.
British authorities subsequently banned Staley from the U.K. financial industry after finding that he misled regulators about those ties. Staley later lost an appeal against that decision, according to the regulatory outcome cited in the CNBC report.
How JPMorgan resolved Epstein-related claims
JPMorgan has already paid substantial sums to end litigation connected to Epstein. In 2023, the bank agreed to pay $290 million to settle a lawsuit brought by Epstein’s victims, without admitting liability.
The same year, JPMorgan agreed to pay $75 million to resolve a separate case filed by the U.S. Virgin Islands, also without admitting liability. The bank later reached a confidential settlement with Staley.
Those settlements did not end public examination of how Epstein remained connected to major financial institutions and influential individuals. The House Oversight Committee’s interview with Staley placed the former JPMorgan and Barclays executive back at the center of that inquiry.
Comer’s comments identified the committee’s immediate line of questioning: what Staley told JPMorgan about Epstein, how the bank treated internal warning signs, and why Epstein was kept as a client despite those concerns. No public transcript of Staley’s Thursday interview was described in the CNBC account.
This story draws on original reporting from CNBC.
