Key executives at Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, and JPMorgan Chase routinely ignored the suspicious activities of convicted child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein because he was among their most profitable clients, paying millions in fees and holding influence over other wealthy people, according to a new investigation released on Tuesday by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR).
The cover-up should prompt lawmakers to strengthen anti–money laundering laws and pass new legislation to hold individual bankers accountable, said Wyden, the ranking member on the Senate Finance Committee. The Oregon senator usedhis reporton the multiyear investigation to put the financial services industry on notice that he’s preparing to do just that.
More from Whitney Curry Wimbish
“My investigation showed conclusively that the bankers who served Jeffrey Epstein and his ultra-wealthy friends were far too motivated to protect their cash cow, and had far too little respect for the law,” Wyden told theProspectvia email.
The report looked at thousands of suspicious activity reports, or SARs. Those are confidential documents that banks and other financial institutions must file with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, the U.S. Treasury’s financial intelligence division, when they identify unusual transactions. Executives have 30 days to file a SAR when they suspect things like money laundering or payments to terrorists.
According to Wyden’s report, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, and JPMorgan Chase failed to do so for millions of dollars in cash withdrawals that had “no clear business purpose.” Instead, bankers let them ride, and together facilitated more than $1.4 billion worth of suspicious wire transfers over two decades—transactions they only flagged retroactively in 2019, after authorities arrested Epstein on federal sex trafficking charges.
The transactions they hid “included thousands of wire transfers, major withdrawals of cash, payments to women and girls.”
The report names specific bankers who worked for at least one of the three named banks: Paul Barrett, David Brigstocke, Mary Casey, Stephen Cutler, John Duffy, Mary Erdoes, Jane Heller, Jeff Matusow, Paul Morris, Justin Nelson, Stewart Oldfield, Jes Staley, and Karen Weiss.
Staley, a top JPMorgan executive at the time, is the only banker among the group who has faced any consequence for helping Epstein maintain his human trafficking ring; he was forced out as CEO of Barclays. “The rest of the bankers named in this list have faced no known financial consequences or regulatory discipline and remain employed in extraordinarily lucrative positions at JPMC, Bank of America and elsewhere,” the report states.
The transactions they hid “included thousands of wire transfers, major withdrawals of cash, payments to women and girls, and correspondent banking in high-risk foreign jurisdictions (including Russia),” the report states. “They also include tens of millions in payments to his conspirator and convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell.”
Deutsche Bank and Bank of America both take their legal obligations seriously, spokespeople for both banks said. The Deutsche spokesperson added that the company regrets its past relationship with Epstein, has cooperated with investigations, and has been “transparent in addressing deficiencies and investing in strengthening our control environment in parallel.” Bank of America, meanwhile, “did not facilitate wrongdoing,” the spokesperson said.
A JPMorgan spokesperson failed to respond to a request for comment on the record.
WYDEN TOLD THEPROSPECTthat he is “proposing a set of changes to put some teeth into the law so that elite bankers are held accountable for covering up for the Epstein class.” The forthcoming legislation will introduce a new level of accountability that banking executives would face for failing to report suspicious transaction activity, as the bankers who protected Epstein did. It would require senior managers to sign annual attestations confirming that accounts of high-net-worth clients comply with anti–money laundering laws; impose higher fines or prison sentences for individual bankers who fail to promptly report suspicious activity to the Treasury Department; and claw back bonuses paid to executives responsible for violating the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). It would also require bank executives to disclose to the Treasury Department every time they fire a client for suspicious financial activity or restrict a client’s cash withdrawals or wire transfers.
Analysis that goes beyond the noise with in-depth, progressive reporting.
