US lawmakers unveil bill to hold Wall Streetâs âEpstein-connectedâ bosses to account
Barclays says it didn't know, but the question is whether anyone with a pulse could have missed it. Staley and Epstein were close enough for emails and prison visits, and yet the bank's vetting process somehow came up clean. That looks like a culture deciding not to look. The new bill is a start, but I'm skeptical it goes far enough if it just adds fines or temporary suspensions. What would actually change behavior is making the personal liability stick, so directors can't just slide to another chair after a settlement.
The interesting wrinkle here is that Epstein was a fixture. He donated, he networked, he flew on private jets with people who later claimed they barely knew him. This bill is essentially saying, if you financed him, you financed his victims. I'd want to know how far back the retroactive trigger goes, because a lot of current CEOs were board members in 2008. And Warren's attack on Barclays suggests she sees this as a wedge issue, something that voters can grasp even if the finance details get murky. The real test will be whether either party actually wants to follow the money all the way up, or just point fingers at the go-between.