James Staley’s Series of Unfortunate Events<br />The company’s relationship with Barclays has “changed dramatically since he arrived,” said an Apollo founder, Leon Black,<br />referring to Mr. Staley, “which speaks, one, of our relationship, and two, performance begets more business.”<br />To further bolster the business, Mr. Staley then hired Tim Main to head the financial institutions advisory group within Barclays’s investment bank.<br />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<br />and refocus on both international investment banking and retail finance in Britain.<br />“Seeking to identify the identity of the whistle-blower is a violation of the law,” said Jordan Thomas, chairman of the whistle-blower<br />practice at the New York law firm Labaton Sucharow, “but it also undermines the culture of integrity within Barclays.”<br />If company executives have a reputation for retaliating against whistle-blowers, he added, “the leadership of Barclays will be disadvantaged<br />because fewer people are going to be telling them about problems.<br />Under Mr. Staley, Mr. Portes said, “it hasn’t changed the strategy in terms of putting<br />weight — a lot of weight — on the investment banking side of the business.<br />Yet weeks later, after the internal inquiry into the letter’s allegations had been concluded<br />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.
