BARCLAYS boss Jes Staley quit yesterday following a probe into his links with Prince Andrew’s paedophile pal Jeffrey Epstein.
But he will land a £2.4million payoff.
The banking giant’s board accepted his resignation after a City watchdog investigation but said: “It is disappointed at this outcome.”
Group chief executive Staley has insisted his relationship with US sex trafficker Epstein was professional and that contact started to taper off from about 2013.
But Financial Conduct Authority investigators are understood to have found more friendly emails sent up to seven years after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for procuring underage prostitutes.
Staley, 63, visited the disgraced financier’s retreat in the US Virgin Islands in 2015, months before taking the top job at Barclays.
He was previously an executive at US bank JP Morgan, where Epstein — found hanged in his jail cell while awaiting trial in 2019 — was already a client.
Staley, who has expressed regret over his dealings with Epstein, will collect £2.4million in cash, shares and £120,000 pension allowance.
Epstein courted powerful contacts for years, including Prince Andrew, former US presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump and tycoon Bill Gates.
