Jes Staley and Larry Summers were made executors of Jeffrey Esptein’s estate, files reveal | Jeffrey Epstein
Former Barclays chief executive Jes Staley and former US Treasury secretary Larry Summers have been appointed executors of Jeffrey Epstein’s estate, according to newly released documents linked to the now-deceased child sex offender.
The files released Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Justice included various versions of Epstein’s last will and testament; These suggested that the financier planned to hand over responsibility for managing his affairs to his associates, including two high-profile men, in the event of his death.
Staley’s name initially appears in the 2012 version of Epstein’s will, but he is considered a “successor executor”; This means that he will only have to handle Epstein’s affairs if others cannot handle their duties. However, in later versions dated 2013 and 2014 he appears as the full guardian. In the applications, it appears that Summers was also listed as the successor to the will in the 2014 will.
Neither Summers nor Staley appear in the final version of Epstein’s will in 2019. The well-connected financier died in prison in August 2019 while awaiting trial on child sex trafficking charges.
The newly released files will raise new questions about the depth of the two men’s relationship with Epstein; Staley had already been banned from the UK banking industry for downplaying his relationship with the convicted child sex offender.
Summers, an economist and former US Treasury secretary, resigned from his teaching position at Harvard in November, following an earlier portion of documents suggesting he remained in contact with Epstein until 2019, a relationship that ended shortly before Epstein was arrested in July of that year.
At a court hearing in the spring where Staley sought to overturn his ban on the UK financial industry, he was asked if he was a “trustee” of Epstein’s estate, but he said he “denied that and refused to be a trustee”.
However, according to court documents, he later told the court, “I refused to be the executor of his estate.” While an executor is responsible for carrying out a plan set forth in a will, a trustee is responsible for managing and distributing assets.
The Financial Conduct Authority’s original investigation, triggered by a cache of more than 1,200 emails between Staley and Epstein, concluded that the pair were “genuinely close” and had a relationship that “went beyond a professional relationship in nature.”
Staley resigned as CEO of Barclays in 2021 after the FCA’s investigation became public and he was banned from the UK financial sector in 2023.
The Guardian has contacted representatives for Staley and Summers for comment.
