UPDATE:This story includes comments from spokespeople for JPMorganChase and Bank of America. It also includes comments from an attorney for Leon Black and additional information about Black's closed-door testimony to the House Oversight Committee.
JPMorganChase, Deutsche Bank andBank of Americalikely violated federal anti-money-laundering laws by failing to report Jeffrey Epstein's suspicious financial transactions to the government, according to a long-anticipated report released Tuesday by Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden.
The report states that the three megabanks failed to request business records that would have substantiated or verified the business purpose of major suspicious transactions involving Epstein. In all, the report alleges, the banks failed to conduct appropriate due diligence on more than $170 million in payments that Leon Black, the former CEO of private equity giant Apollo Global Management, made to Epstein.
The report details suspicious activity reported by Deutsche Bank after the notorious sex offender's death in 2019 — including transfers through accounts atBank of America. It states that it wasn't until after Epstein was arrested on sex-trafficking charges earlier in 2019 thatJPMorganChase,Bank of Americaand Deutsche Bankretroactively flagged thousands of questionable transactions.
It lists 13 senior bankers atJPMorganChase,Bank of Americaand Deutsche Bank who allegedly protected Epstein in order to gain access to Apollo's Black and other billionaires.
Black was Epstein's single largest source of funding, and Wyden's investigation found that Epstein relied heavily on large payments from Black to bankroll his sex-trafficking activity.
Bank records and public court filings "detail a shocking pattern of the biggest Wall Street banks in the country choosing to ignore clear evidence of sex trafficking and money laundering, just to keep a wealthy client on the books," Wyden said in a press release.
AJPMorganChasespokeswoman said the bank "strongly disagrees with the report's conclusions," and said it was based "on many false claims contradicted by easily-found public information."
"We began flagging suspicious transactions for the government as early as 2002 and throughout our relationship, and flagged transactions for law enforcement that could be related to human trafficking even after we closed his accounts," theJPMorganspokeswoman said in an email.
"Every one of these reports went to the government — and at no point did any law enforcement agency contact the bank, request further records or provide information that would have supported additional action by the bank," theJPMorganspokeswoman added.
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ABank of Americaspokesperson said in an email: "We take our legal and regulatory obligations seriously and, as we have previously said, the bank did not facilitate wrongdoing."
Deutsche Bank said in a statement that it takes its legal obligations seriously, including "appropriately responding to authorized investigations and proceedings."
"The bank regrets our historical connection with Jeffrey Epstein. We have cooperated with regulatory and law enforcement agencies regarding their investigations and have been transparent in addressing deficiencies and investing in strengthening our control environment in parallel," a Deutsche Bank spokeswoman wrote in an email.
Wyden's report said that his investigators sent several requests for information to the banks, but they declined to answer his questions or provide documents. "Each and every bank refused to cooperate with Senator Wyden's investigation," the report states.
