Ex-Barclays chief denies sex with woman in Snow White costume

Former Barclays chief executive Jes Staley has denied having sex with a woman wearing a Snow White costume, according to transcripts of a closed-door interview with US lawmakers investigating his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. The questioning focused on emails exchanged by Staley and Epstein on 9 and 10 July 2010. In one message, Staley wrote, “That was fun. Say hi to Snow White.” Epstein then asked which character Staley would like next. Staley replied, “Beauty and the Beast,” prompting Epstein to respond that one side was available. Lawmakers also cited a message sent to Epstein by an unidentified person the following day. The email said that “the snow white was f..ed twice as soon as she put her costume,” according to the transcript. Another email appears to show Epstein asking someone to buy a Snow White costume several weeks earlier. Asked directly whether he had sex with a young woman in a Snow White costume, Staley answered no. When pressed about the connection between his message to Epstein and the unidentified person’s later email, he said he had no idea who else the woman had been with and insisted that the matter had nothing to do with him. Staley later said he may have seen the woman in Epstein’s apartment and may have prompted the email, but maintained that he had not been with a person dressed as Snow White outside the possibility of crossing paths with her at the apartment. He also denied that he and Epstein used Disney princesses as code names to select women for sexual encounters. The interview was conducted as part of a congressional investigation into Epstein, who died in prison in August 2019 while awaiting trial on child sex-trafficking charges. Staley met Epstein in 2000 while heading JPMorgan Chase’s private bank. He joined Barclays as chief executive in 2015 and stepped down in 2021 after UK regulators investigated his relationship with Epstein. He was later barred from working in the UK financial sector after regulators found that he had downplayed those ties, according to The Guardian.