House panel grills ex-JPMorgan banker Jes Staley over Epstein ties
What's new: lawmakers are scrutinizing why JPMorgan kept Epstein as a client despite internal warnings he was high-risk.
Former JPMorgan executive Jes Staley sat for a closed-door House Oversight Committee interview Thursday as lawmakers examined his long relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and the bank's decision to keep the convicted sex offender as a client. Committee Chair James Comer said documents reviewed by the panel show JPMorgan had internal discussions about Epstein as a high-risk client, but Staley continued to defend him at the firm. Staley spent more than three decades at JPMorgan and later led Barclays before resigning in 2021. U.K. regulators later barred him from the financial industry after finding he misled them about the extent of his relationship with Epstein. JPMorgan paid $290 million in 2023 to settle a lawsuit by Epstein's victims and $75 million to resolve a case brought by the U.S. Virgin Islands.