Jes Staley, a Bowdoin alum and former trustee, exchanged more than 1,000 emails with sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, including some with sexual content and photos of young women. Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
Former Bowdoin College trustee James “Jes” Staley exchanged more than 1,000 emails with late sex-trafficker and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, including some with sexual content and photos of young women, according to newly unredacted portions of a lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase & Co. filed in federal court.
Staley is a Bowdoin alum who has lived primarily in New York, São Paulo and London since graduating in 1979. Working as a head private banker for JPMorgan, he managed Epstein’s finances from 2000 to 2013.
Financier Jeffrey Epstein
Staley served on Bowdoin’s board of trustees from 2007 to 2021. He led the college’s presidential search, resulting in the hiring of current President Clayton Rose, who worked in banking with Staley before beginning his career in academia. Rose said in an email to the Bowdoin community Wednesday that he was friends with Staley for many years.
Unsealed portions of the lawsuit filed by the U.S. Virgin Islands against JPMorgan accuse the bank of facilitating its client Epstein’s sex trafficking enterprise. They build on evidence that Staley had a long-running and close relationship with Epstein and imply that Staley knew about Epstein’s sex trafficking.
“I owe you so much. And I deeply appreciate our friendship,” wrote Staley in an email to Epstein in 2009. “I have few so profound.”
In another email communication in August 2009, Staley told Epstein he would be in London in a week. Epstein asked whether Staley would need
anything while in London and Staley responded “Yep.” Epstein then wired $3,000 from his JPMorgan account to a woman with an Eastern European surname.
A year later, Staley sent to an email to Epstein saying “That was fun. Say hi to Snow White.” Epstein responded. “[W]hat character would you like next?” Staley said “Beauty and the Beast,” to which Epstein replied: “well one side is available.”
Staley, who is not a defendant in the case, has acknowledged his friendship with Epstein but denies having had any knowledge of his sex trafficking enterprise.
When Epstein was arrested in the summer of 2019, Bowdoin investigated Staley’s conduct and relationship with Epstein and decided Staley should remain on the board.
Two years later, in 2021, Staley resigned from Bowdoin’s board the same day he stepped down as CEO of London-based Barclays bank after a United Kingdom regulatory agency shared its early findings of an investigation into his relationship with Epstein.
Bowdoin President Rose said in his email to Bowdoin faculty, students, staff and alumni that “Epstein’s conduct was monstrous and the revelation about the extent of Jes’s relationship is deeply disturbing.”
He also said he was misguided when in 2019 he said that Staley “represents all that is great about Bowdoin and the culture and values here.”
“Whatever we learn about the truth of the specific and deeply troubling allegations made in the court filing, from what we now understand about the depth of his relationship with Epstein, I was clearly wrong,” he said of his 2019 comment.
Rose declined a request to speak about the recently unearthed information regarding Staley and Epstein’s relationship.
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