Former Barclays PLC
BCS,
chief Jes Staley exchanged more than a thousand emails with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, some of which included photos of young women in seductive poses, according to court documents released this week.
The emails, revealed by the U.S. Virgin Islands government in a lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase & Co.
JPM,
where Mr. Staley was once a top executive, shed new light on the relationship between the banker and the late financier who was charged with sex trafficking before his apparent suicide in 2019.
“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.
An expanded version of this story appears on WSJ.com.
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Credit: marketwatch.com