Latest / The Vault: The Epstein Files / Jeffrey Epstein and the Highbridge Capital Deal (Part 2) (9/23/26)

Transcript

Jeffrey Epstein and the Highbridge Capital Deal (Part 2) (9/23/26) · The Vault: The Epstein Files

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up everyone and welcome to another episode of the
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Epstein Chronicles. In this episode, we're going to pick up
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: where we left off, talking about Highbridge Capital, Jeffrey Epstein,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Jess Daly, Glenn Dubin, and JP Morgan. At some point,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: the coincidences stop being little isolated boxes and begin forming
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: a picture that demands aggressive examination. Epstein's former girlfriend marries
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Glenn Dubin. Epstein stays extraordinarily close with the Dubin family.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Epstein introduces Dubin to Staley. Epstein helps put together a
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: monster Wall Street deal. Epstein gets paid approximately $ 15 million,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Staley's career benefits. Virginia later accuses Dubin of sexual misconduct
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: connected to Epstein, which Dubin denies. Staley later becomes engulfed
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: in his own Epstein scandal. Yet somehow the transaction connecting
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: all three men continues to be treated like accounting trivia?
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: That's the insanity of the way the Epstein story has
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: been investigated. The financial relationships are constantly separated from the
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: personal relationships as if Epstein lived two completely different lives. One,
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Epstein supposedly handled money. Another, Epstein supposedly abused and trafficked girls. Another,
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Epstein supposedly socialized with billionaires. Another, Epstein supposedly cultivated politicians
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: and academics. But that kind of compartmentalization protects the network
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: because it prevents anyone from looking at the whole machine
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: at once. Epstein himself did not live inside any of
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: those artificial boundaries. His financial relationships, friendships, access, social life,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: and predatory behavior existed inside the same universe. And Highbridge
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: is where those worlds crashed directly into each other. Dubin
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: was both a major financial figure and a long-time Epstein intimant.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Jeff Staley was both the senior J.P. Morgan banker and
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: one of Epstein's closest documented associates. Epstein was both the
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: person making the introduction and then the man receiving millions
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: when the transaction closed. J.P. Morgan was both Epstein's bank
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: and the company acquiring Highbridge. Everybody keeps asking for the
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: Rosetta Stone that explains Epstein's strange hold over powerful people.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: Maybe there's no single answer, but a man who can
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: put together billion-dollar business deals, and make careers is a
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: man that powerful people have a reason to keep around.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: And I don't think that explanation requires any fantasy whatsoever. Now, J.P. Morgan,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: they deserve their own beating over this because the bank
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: cannot hide behind the idea that Epstein was simply another
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: wealthy customer who fooled everybody. Epstein was providing great value
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: to people inside the institution. Highbridge proves it. Jess Staley,
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: did not need hindsight to understand that Epstein was useful.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: He experienced that usefulness personally. The introduction to Dubin led
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: directly into a deal Staley regarded as a major career achievement. J.P.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Morgan got its controlling interest in Highbridge. Epstein got millions.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: And years later, the bank continued dealing with Epstein, even
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: as the reasons to sever that relationship piled higher and higher.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: When banks keep problematic clients, there's usually a reason. Sometimes
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: the reason is incompetence. Sometimes it's bureaucracy. Sometimes nobody wants
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: to make the decision. And sometimes the client is simply
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: too valuable to people who matter. Highbridge should have forced
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: investigators to explore that possibility at JPMorgan with a damn crowbar.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: How much money did Epstein generate for the bank directly
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: and indirectly? How many relationships did he introduce? How many
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: potential clients passed through him? How many senior JPMorgan people
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: saw him as a source of business. How much did
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: the success of Highbridge color the institution's perception of him afterwards?
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Those questions become even uglier when you remember how long J.P.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: Morgan continued banking Epstein after his criminal conduct was already public.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: This was not a bank dealing with some hidden monster
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: whose crimes would only become known 20 years later. His
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: name was already toxic, and J.P. Morgan continued doing business
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: with him When you place Hybridge beside that timeline, the
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: argument that Epstein's economic usefulness should be examined becomes impossible
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: to wave away. And I think there's also something deeply
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: revealing about how much energy has gone into examining Epstein's spending,
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: while far less energy has gone into examining how he
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: earned enormous sums from powerful people. We know about wire transfers.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: We know about cash withdrawals. We know about payments to women.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: We know about properties, planes, and offshore structures. But the
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: more important question has always been where the money came
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: from in the first place. Highbridge gives us a rare
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: clean answer. A powerful businessman's company paid Epstein millions after
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Epstein helped facilitate a deal with powerful bank executives. That's
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: where investigators should plant the shovel and start digging downward.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: Dig until every email is accounted for, until every invoice
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: is public, until somebody explains what $ 15 million bought. until
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Staley's version of events can be compared line by line
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: with Dubin's. Dig through the lawyers, accountants, bankers, and advisors
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: who worked the transaction. Dig through Epstein's own financial records
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: and see exactly where his fee went. Dig through JP
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: Morgan's internal correspondence and determine who knew Epstein was making
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: money from the transaction. Dig through Highbridge's records and determine
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: who approved the payment and on what basis. If the
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: deal was completely legitimate, then the paperwork should make that obvious.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: And if the paperwork raises more questions, then follow them
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: wherever they go. That is what follow the money is
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: supposed to mean. It doesn't mean issuing a press release,
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: dumping a pile of documents online, and congratulating yourself for transparency.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: It means taking one of the largest documented financial payouts
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: of Epstein's life and tracing every dollar attached to it.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: It means putting Jess Daly back under the microscope over
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: the deal that helped make him inside JP Morgan. It
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: means examining Glenn Dubin's financial relationship with Epstein with the
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: same intensity applied to their personal relationship. It means asking
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: why Epstein was worth $ 15 million to Highbridge. And it
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: means refusing to accept another round of wealthy men claiming
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: they can't remember the details. Look, the Highbridge deal is
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: not interesting because Epstein happened to be nearby. It's important
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: because Epstein appears to have been essential to getting the
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: right people together. He turned his personal relationships into a
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: business opportunity. He turned the business opportunity into an enormous payday.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: Staley turned the opportunity into professional capital. Dubin turned his
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: company into part of J.P. Morgan. J.P. Morgan expanded its
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: financial empire, and everyone in the room walked away with
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: something valuable. And my friends, That is Jeffrey Epstein operating
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: at the highest levels of American finance in plain sight.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: So please, spare me the endless talk about how mysterious
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Jeffrey Epstein's wealth was while this deal continues sitting right
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: in front of everybody. Spare me the speeches about following
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: every lead while Congress lets Staley skate through testimony without
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: spending hours ripping Highbridge apart. Spare me the insistence that
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: investigators want to understand Epstein's network while Glenn Dubin's role
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: receives a fraction of the attention, poured onto far less
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: consequential characters. The money's there. The relationships are there. The
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: transactions are there. The allegations are certainly there. The only
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: thing missing is the appetite to tear the whole goddamn
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: deal apart and find out exactly what Epstein was being
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: paid for, exactly what everyone around him got in return,
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: and exactly why one of the clearest money trails in
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: the entire Epstein saga was allowed to sit untouched for
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: so damn long. And maybe that's the part that should
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: bother people the most. Hybridge was never hidden in some
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: encrypted ledger, buried three shell companies deep in the Caribbean.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: It was a major Wall Street transaction involving household name,
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: financial institutions, celebrated executives, and people whose connections I've seen
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: were already substantial. The deal happened in the open. The
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: money moved through legitimate channels. The participants knew one another.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: The benefits were obvious. And still, Once Epstein's crimes were
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: fully exposed, nobody with real power seemed interested in dragging
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: every piece of that transaction into the sunlight. That's not
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: because the trail is impossible to follow. It's because following
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: it properly would force uncomfortable questions onto people and institutions
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: that have spent years trying to keep Epstein's story compartmentalized, sanitized,
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: and safely manageable. And the same pattern keeps repeating around
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: the Epstein story. because too many investigations have been satisfied
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: with the edges of the story. They chased the lurid details,
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: the famous names, the plane logs, and the social photographs.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: But when the trail reaches the machinery of wealth and influence,
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: everything suddenly becomes cautious and procedural. Hybrid should have shattered
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: that pattern. It should have forced investigators to confront Epstein
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: as something more dangerous than a predator with rich friends.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: He was a man, who can move inside elite financial circles,
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: create profitable introductions, advance careers, and collect enormous fees, all
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: while shrouded in secrecy. And look, Staley and Dubin, they're
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: not random passengers passing through the world. They're central figures
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: in a deal that made Epstein millions and strengthened relationships
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: that would matter for years afterward. If nobody's willing to
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: tear that deal apart, now, then all the promises of
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: transparency amount to little more than theater. Because in the end,
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: Highbridge is not just about a billion dollar acquisition or
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: a 15 million dollar payment. It's about the ugly possibility
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: that Jeffrey Epstein was protected by the same thing that
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: protected so many powerful people around him. Usefulness. He made
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: people money. He opened doors. He delivered access. He helped careers.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: He knew how to make himself valuable to men and
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: institutions that had every reason to keep him close and
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: every incentive to look the other way when that stench
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: became impossible to ignore. So if you really want to
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: know why Jeffrey Epstein survived for as long as he
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: did inside the upper reaches of American power, stop staring
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: at the guest list and start staring at the balance sheets.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: Highbridge is sitting there like a bloodstain on white marble,
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: and the fact that nobody has scrubbed down every inch
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: of that deal tells you everything you need to know
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: about how badly the truth has been pursued. And so,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: where does that leave us? Not with another promise that
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: somebody somewhere will finally get serious, but with the uncomfortable
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: fact that the trail has been sitting in plain sight
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: for years. Epstein did not simply orbit powerful men. In Highbridge,
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: he helped make powerful men more powerful than and got
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: paid millions for doing it. Jess Staley benefited. Glenn Dubin benefited.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: JP Morgan benefited. Epstein benefited. Then the years passed. The
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: revelations piled up. Survivors kept speaking. Lawsuits cracked open pieces
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: of the record. And still nobody gave this deal the
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: full public accounting it deserved. And I think that should
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: stay with you. Not because it proves every suspicion people
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: have about Epstein's world, but because it shows how much
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: can remain unanswered even when the names, the money, and
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: the transactions are already known. We keep being told that
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: the mystery of Jeffrey Epstein is impossibly complicated, but sometimes
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: the mystery is not complicated at all. Sometimes the money
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: trail is right there. The people who benefited are right there.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: And the only question left is why nobody with the
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: power to finish the job ever seemed willing to follow
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: it all the way to the end. All the information
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: that goes with this episode can be found in the
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: description box.