Former Barclays chief executive Jes Staley told US lawmakers that he did not have sex with a woman dressed as Snow White, denying an allegation arising from emails exchanged with Jeffrey Epstein in 2010. The testimony forms part of a congressional investigation into Epstein and again highlights Staley’s long-standing association with the convicted sex offender, which ended his UK banking career.

Emails cited in the questioning referred to “Snow White” and other Disney princesses, while a separate message claimed that a woman in a Snow White costume had sex twice. Staley said he may have encountered the woman at Epstein’s apartment but insisted the incident had “nothing to do” with him, and denied that Disney princess names were codes for arranging sexual encounters. He led Barclays from 2015 until 2021, later receiving a UK financial-services ban for misleading regulators about the extent of his Epstein relationship.