BCS Barclays PLC

By Simon Clark 

LONDON -- Barclays PLC Chief Executive Jes Staley came under renewed pressure Monday after an activist investor called on the bank to withdraw its support for its American CEO because of his professional relationship with the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Sherborne Investors said the board of Barclays should reverse its decision to recommend Mr. Staley for re-election at its next annual meeting in May.

"We believe that it would be in everyone's interest to draw a line under this destabilizing situation, which has become a circus, as soon as possible," Sherborne said in a statement.

Mr. Staley's interactions with Mr. Epstein date to at least 2000, when Mr. Staley led JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s private bank and Mr. Epstein was a client. They remained in contact after Mr. Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 in a Florida state court to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl. Mr. Staley has said they last met in 2015. Mr. Epstein died in jail last year.

Sherborne Investors owns more than 5% of Barclays and said in the statement that it's now the largest shareholder in the bank. It has criticized Mr. Staley's leadership of the bank and last year unsuccessfully demanded a seat on the board.

Edward Bramson, Sherborne's founder, renewed his criticism in a recent letter to his investors after Barclays said the U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority was investigating the professional relationship between Mr. Staley and Mr. Epstein. Mr. Staley has said there was no interaction between him and Mr. Epstein after he became Barclays CEO in December 2015.

A Barclays spokesman declined to comment but referred The Wall Street Journal to a Feb. 13 statement in which it said the bank's board believes Mr. Staley has been sufficiently transparent with the company as regards the nature and extent of his relationship with Mr. Epstein and the subsequent description of that relationship in the company's response to the FCA. Accordingly, the statement said, Mr. Staley retains the full confidence of the board and is being unanimously recommended for re-election at the annual general meeting.

Last summer, prosecutors accused Mr. Epstein of orchestrating a yearslong sex-trafficking operation in which he and his associates lured dozens of girls -- some as young as 14 years old -- to his homes in New York and Florida.

Sherborne's statement published Monday goes much further than Mr. Bramson's previous public remarks on Barclays and criticized Mr. Staley and JPMorgan, his former employer, for providing financial services to Mr. Epstein.

A JPMorgan spokesman declined to comment.

Write to Simon Clark at simon.clark@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 02, 2020 07:15 ET (12:15 GMT)

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