James Staley’s Series of Unfortunate Events
The company’s relationship with Barclays has “changed dramatically since he arrived,” said an Apollo founder, Leon Black,
referring to Mr. Staley, “which speaks, one, of our relationship, and two, performance begets more business.”
To further bolster the business, Mr. Staley then hired Tim Main to head the financial institutions advisory group within Barclays’s investment bank.
Soon after joining Barclays, Mr. Staley devised a strategy to cut what he regarded as nonessential businesses, freeze hiring to avoid laying people off, save costs by slashing the bank’s quarterly dividend in half
and refocus on both international investment banking and retail finance in Britain.
“Seeking to identify the identity of the whistle-blower is a violation of the law,” said Jordan Thomas, chairman of the whistle-blower
practice at the New York law firm Labaton Sucharow, “but it also undermines the culture of integrity within Barclays.”
If company executives have a reputation for retaliating against whistle-blowers, he added, “the leadership of Barclays will be disadvantaged
because fewer people are going to be telling them about problems.
Under Mr. Staley, Mr. Portes said, “it hasn’t changed the strategy in terms of putting
weight — a lot of weight — on the investment banking side of the business.
Yet weeks later, after the internal inquiry into the letter’s allegations had been concluded
and Mr. Main’s hiring reaffirmed, Mr. Staley tried again, this time instructing Barclays’s internal security team to track down the writer, Barclays said.
