Ex-Barclays boss denies having sex with woman dressed as Snow White after Epstein emails
Guardian AU Business
β’Thu, 27 Aug 2026 17:21:00 GMT
π° What Happened
The former Barclays chief executive Jes Staley has denied having sex with a woman dressed as Snow White, after being questioned by US lawmakers examining his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The comments, detailed in newly released transcripts from a closed-door interview last month, concern a widely circulated 2010 email exchange in which Staley joked with Epstein about Disney princesses, including saying goodbye to Snow White. Lawmakers pressed Staley as part of their investigation into Epstein's network. Staley flatly denied the incident, though he did discuss the broader email exchange.
π The Backstory
Staley, who spent more than three decades at JPMorgan Chase before joining Barclays in 2015, was later pushed out amid scrutiny of his long friendship with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. That association turned into a regulatory and reputational headache, ultimately costing Staley the top job at Barclays. In the years after Epstein's death in prison in 2019, his emails and papers resurfaced, and analysts and senators began asking how a high-profile banker handled such a close ties to a violent felon. The material now entering congressional records renews public debate over his culpability and the choices he made.
π― Why It Matters
A former global banking chief has been named in fresh congressional transcripts, deepening scrutiny of how elite figures became entangled with Epstein's trafficking network. It brings corporate governance into the spotlight, showing how banks vet executives against questionable personal ties and pay reputational costs when they look the other way. The revelations could also reshape how the financial world judges senior bankers' private relationships. For the bank sector and the wider public, it presses hard questions about responsibility and accountability around one of the most notorious scandals of recent decades.
The former Barclays chief executive Jes Staley has denied having sex with a woman dressed as Snow White, after being questioned by US lawmakers examining his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The comments, detailed in newly released transcripts from a closed-door interview last month, concern a widely circulated 2010 email exchange in which Staley joked with Epstein about Disney princesses, including saying goodbye to Snow White. Lawmakers pressed Staley as part of their investigation into Epstein's network. Staley flatly denied the incident, though he did discuss the broader email exchange.
Staley, who spent more than three decades at JPMorgan Chase before joining Barclays in 2015, was later pushed out amid scrutiny of his long friendship with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. That association turned into a regulatory and reputational headache, ultimately costing Staley the top job at Barclays. In the years after Epstein's death in prison in 2019, his emails and papers resurfaced, and analysts and senators began asking how a high-profile banker handled such a close ties to a violent felon. The material now entering congressional records renews public debate over his culpability and the choices he made.
A former global banking chief has been named in fresh congressional transcripts, deepening scrutiny of how elite figures became entangled with Epstein's trafficking network. It brings corporate governance into the spotlight, showing how banks vet executives against questionable personal ties and pay reputational costs when they look the other way. The revelations could also reshape how the financial world judges senior bankers' private relationships. For the bank sector and the wider public, it presses hard questions about responsibility and accountability around one of the most notorious scandals of recent decades.