JPMorgan Accused of Underreporting Jeffrey Epstein’s Suspicious Transactions for Almost Two Decades

A senator investigating deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s financial activities is accusing JPMorgan Chase of systematically failing to conduct compliance on Epstein’s transactions for the better part of two decades.

JPMorgan Chase hardly reported any of Epstein’s transactions as suspicious until after his 2019 arrest on federal sex trafficking charges, when the bank did so retroactively, according to an investigation from Senator Ron Wyden (D., Ore.), ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee.

“When you go through the evidence laid out in this memorandum, it’s clear that JPMorgan Chase ought to face criminal investigation for the way it enabled Epstein’s horrific crimes,” Wyden said.

“Bank executives tuned out compliance officers who were alarmed by Epstein’s transactions, seemingly withheld evidence of potential money laundering, and coached Epstein on how to obscure suspiciously large cash withdrawals. This goes beyond a total compliance breakdown, and it’s impossible to believe the decisions that led to this disaster never reached the very top of the executive suite.”

Wyden released a memo Thursday breaking down Epstein’s relationship with JPMorgan based on his ongoing investigation and newly unsealed court records. He has spent years investigating Epstein’s ties to various financial institutions and billionaire Leon Black.

“Given the scale of Epstein’s trafficking operation and all the money involved, it’s unacceptable that only he and Maxwell have faced prosecution. Complicit banks ought to be investigated, as should anybody who helped Epstein traffic his victims or took part in the abuse,” Wyden added.

Epstein was a JPMorgan Chase client from the 1990s until 2013, when he parted ways with the bank. From 2002 to 2016, JPMorgan filed seven suspicious activity reports flagging $4.3 million of transactions from Epstein’s accounts, the unsealed court records show. Epstein was arrested in July 2019 on federal sex trafficking charges and died the following month as he awaited trial. His death was officially ruled a suicide, a determination the Trump administration upheld when it decided earlier this year not to release the government’s files on Epstein.

In August and September 2019, JPMorgan filed two suspicious activity reports flagging close to $1.3 billion of transactions from Epstein’s accounts. Wyden’s memo argues the delayed filing represents the “strongest evidence” for investigating the bank for failing to report on Epstein’s transactions.

When reached for comment, a spokesperson said the bank worked with law enforcement on its investigation after the government went public with its case.

“We acted appropriately in filing SARs as early as 2002. The second the government finally made public the sex trafficking details in 2019 – information they clearly had for years – we identified for law enforcement a range of Epstein’s past transactions intended to assist with the investigation,” said JPMorgan spokesperson Patricia Wexler.

In 2023, JPMorgan agreed to a $290 million settlement with a group of Epstein’s victims who accused the bank of complicity in his sexual abuse. The bank has repeatedly apologized for its involvement with Epstein. JPMorgan’s relationship with Epstein lasted several years after his 2008 conviction on state-level sex crimes in Florida.

Wyden’s investigation also provides a deeper look into Epstein’s relationships with top executives at the bank. When Epstein was a client, he communicated regularly with Mary Erdoes, CEO of JPMorgan’s wealth and asset management division. The memo summarizes numerous emails Epstein and Erdoes exchanged during his long tenure as a client. It also cites an internal due diligence report from 2013 that indicated Erdoes was involved with managing Epstein’s relationship with the bank.

The report calls for further investigation into Epstein’s relationship with JPMorgan after he left the institution. Emails indicate JPMorgan executives knew Epstein would remain Leon Black’s main adviser and that it would be acceptable to work with him through client accounts. For this reason, Wyden’s report speculates that JPMorgan did not report Epstein’s transactions because it wanted to use Epstein as a source of referrals for other wealthy clients.

Another area the memo spotlights for further investigation is the role Epstein’s accountant Harry Beller played in moving Epstein’s money around and conducting large cash withdrawals.

JPMorgan’s CEO of private banking at the time, John Duffy, oversaw Epstein’s cash withdrawals. Duffy told a risk management executive in 2012 that he asked Epstein to stop withdrawing large amounts of cash from his personal account and to do so from his aviation account instead. Compliance executives later observed the unusual pattern of Epstein’s withdrawals from his aviation account to supposedly pay for jet fuel.

Given Epstein’s wealth, he appears to have been a significant source of revenue for JPMorgan’s private banking division. Wyden’s memo cites company documents and emails to assert that Epstein was “an essential client” for multiple private bankers. Epstein was part of an internal list of ultra-wealthy clients at the bank and generated $8.1 million worth of fees for JPMorgan between 2009 and 2014.

Epstein made at least $25 million of payments to his partner Ghislaine Maxwell from his JPMorgan accounts, a forensic accountant found. Epstein also used an account at BNY Mellon to wire Maxwell’s JPMorgan account over $7 million in order for her to purchase a helicopter. The pair employed air travel in their sex trafficking operation, but the transactions were not flagged as suspicious.

Maxwell was convicted in 2021 on federal sex trafficking charges. The Trump administration moved her to a lower security prison in August after she conducted an interview with the Justice Department about her activities with Epstein. Maxwell effusively praised President Trump in the interview as she pushes for a pardon.

Trump signed legislation Thursday requiring his administration to release the Epstein files after the Justice Department elected not do so earlier this year. The legislation passed overwhelmingly after Trump gave House Republicans permission to vote for it. Trump has repeatedly called the Epstein files a “hoax” and dismissed their importance.

The House Oversight Committee is conducting its own investigation into Epstein’s activities. So far, the panel has released tens of thousands of pages worth of documents provided by Epstein’s estate and the administration. Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R., Ky.) subpoenaed JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank Tuesday as the next step in the investigation.