© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: The Barclays Bank logo is seen in this illustration taken on March 12, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Rovic/Illustration/File photo
LONDON (Reuters) – Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) recommended Barclays (LON:) Investors re-elect all board members at its annual meeting in May, a move that may ease protests against bosses for their support of former CEO Jess Staley, as investigations into his connection to sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein continue.
The influencer’s advisor said in a report published Monday that “questions may be asked” about the board’s judgment in its decision to back Staley between 2019-2021, but that it may be too early to influence the election of directors.
“While it is accepted that the Council could only have acted on the information available to it at the time… given the recent development of events, it may be reasonable to defer any attempt to answer such questions until further word of the ongoing investigations has emerged,” he said. iss.
In a pre-meeting notice to investors last month, Barclays said that since Staley’s resignation in November 2021, it had not received “any new physical evidence” from authorities to challenge the findings of a regulatory investigation into how Staley described his relationship with Epstein.
At the time of his resignation, Barclays said the initial conclusions of an investigation by British financial regulators into how honest Staley was about his ties to Epstein “did not produce any findings that Staley saw or had knowledge of any of Epstein’s alleged crimes.”
Staley admitted that he was friendly with Epstein, but regretted their relationship and denied knowledge of the financier’s criminal activities.
The notice also said that Staley’s unearned long-term bonuses remained on hold pending further developments, adding that the board would “consider further action as appropriate.”
Staley, who joined Barclays in 2015 after more than 30 years at JPMorgan (NYSE: NYSE: ), has been named in two civil cases brought against the US bank over the enabling and masking of Epstein’s network. In turn, JPMorgan sued Staley for his alleged “indecent” behavior and breach of his duty of loyalty to the bank.
Staley’s lawyers have dismissed allegations that he hid what he knew about the late financier as “slanderous” and “false”.