Latest / The Epstein Chronicles / Ron Wyden’s Report on Wall Street and Jeffrey Epstein (Part 3) (8/17/26)

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Ron Wyden’s Report on Wall Street and Jeffrey Epstein (Part 3) (8/17/26) · The Epstein Chronicles

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  Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the
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  Speaker 1: Epstein Chronicles. In this episode, we're going to dive right
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  Speaker 1: back in to the Ron Wyden report discussing Jeffrey Epstein
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  Speaker 1: and his ties to Wall Street Bank employees managing accounts
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  Speaker 1: for high net worth individuals developed deep knowledge of their
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  Speaker 1: clients and their business interests. Heller and Weiss were surely
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  Speaker 1: familiar with Epstein's background and the extraordinary nature of his
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  Speaker 1: compensation scheme. Heller and Weiss likely understood that payments of
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  Speaker 1: one hundred and seventy million over five years for purported
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  Speaker 1: tax and estate planning are not routine in the tax
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  Speaker 1: or estate planning industries. Bank of America's failure to scrutinize
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  Speaker 1: the purpose of the payments Blade made to Epstein protected
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  Speaker 1: the bank's interest in the lucrative business opportunities that came
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  Speaker 1: with having Black as a client. Billionaire clients like Leon
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  Speaker 1: Black can generate millions of dollars in fees for banks
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  Speaker 1: every year across a variety of financial services, including private
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  Speaker 1: wealth management, brokerage, and large lines of credit against assets
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  Speaker 1: like stocks, art collections, yachts, and real estate. Bank of America,
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  Speaker 1: as well as the individuals as signing the Black's accounts
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  Speaker 1: had a large incentive to protect this revenue stream. For example,
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  Speaker 1: Bank of America made four loans worth more than five
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  Speaker 1: hundred million related to Leon Black's art collection, yacht, and
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  Speaker 1: private jet. One of those loans was a four hundred
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  Speaker 1: and eighty four million dollar loan against his art collection
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  Speaker 1: at a rate of one point four to three percent. Similarly,
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  Speaker 1: emails between Epstein and Black's family office describe an eighteen
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  Speaker 1: million dollar loan through the company that owns Black's yacht.
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  Speaker 1: In an email, Eileen Alexandrinsen, the head of Black's family office,
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  Speaker 1: told Epstein that Jane Heller essentially set up a personal
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  Speaker 1: loan collaborized by the boat with an art collection with
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  Speaker 1: an appraised value exceeding to two point six billion and
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  Speaker 1: more than thirty million Apollo shares worth at least four billion.
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  Speaker 1: The financial opportunities for Bank of America resulting from Black
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  Speaker 1: being a customer were substantial. The Treasury Department and the
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  Speaker 1: Federal Reserve must both conduct investigations into Bank of America's
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  Speaker 1: handling of these payments from Black to Epstein. These investigations
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  Speaker 1: must review one whether bank systems flag these payments for
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  Speaker 1: compliance officials, two whether the payments were escalated to management
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  Speaker 1: for further review, and three whether a proper due diligence
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  Speaker 1: was conducted to verify the purpose of the transactions. These
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  Speaker 1: investigations should also determine whether Bank of America use the
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  Speaker 1: authority provided under Section three fourteen B of the Patriot Act,
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  Speaker 1: which provides a safe harbor to confidentially request information from
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  Speaker 1: other banks on suspicious transactions. Billionairely On Black was overwhelmingly
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  Speaker 1: the largest source of funding or Epstein's sex trafficking. As
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  Speaker 1: part of the investigation, Senator Widen's investigators obtained records of
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  Speaker 1: a settlement between billionairely On Black and the USVII. As
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  Speaker 1: part of the settlement, Black agreed to pay sixty two
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  Speaker 1: and a half million and avoided criminal prosecution in the
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  Speaker 1: USVII in relation to matters concerning Jeffrey Epstein. This settlement
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  Speaker 1: included a damning admission that Epstein used the money that
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  Speaker 1: Black paid them to fund sex trafficking activities in the USVII.
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  Speaker 1: Senator Wyden's investigators also reviewed the extent to which Epstein
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  Speaker 1: relied on Black as a source of income. This review
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  Speaker 1: identified records unsealed in federal court, indicating that Black was
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  Speaker 1: Epstein's primary source of income between twenty twelve and twenty seventeen.
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  Speaker 1: These documents also revealed that Epstein relied disproportionately on Black
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  Speaker 1: to finances activity well. According to an expert report repaired
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  Speaker 1: a forensic accountant retained by USVII in connection with a
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  Speaker 1: lawsuit against JPMC. From twenty thirteen forward, the only Epstein
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  Speaker 1: controlled entity that generated any revenue with Southern Trust. In
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  Speaker 1: order to obtain favorable tax treatment, Epstein represented to the
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  Speaker 1: government of the USVII that the Southern Trust provided consulting
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  Speaker 1: services in biomedical and financial informatics. Southern Trust also declared
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  Speaker 1: on tax returns that Southern Trust was a database company
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  Speaker 1: in service. However, these declarations are inconsistent with the Southern
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  Speaker 1: Trusts true primary source of income, which was payments from
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  Speaker 1: Leon Black for purported tax service. According to tax returns
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  Speaker 1: filed in the USVII, Southern Trust reported revenues of approximately
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  Speaker 1: one hundred and eighty four million between twenty thirteen and
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  Speaker 1: twenty seventeen. Out of the one hundred and eighty four million,
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  Speaker 1: one hundred and sixty six million came from Leon Black's
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  Speaker 1: accounts at Bank of America. By these metrics, leon Black
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  Speaker 1: provided Epstein ninety percent of his income over a five
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  Speaker 1: year period. Senator Widen's investigators believed that Epstein's reliance on
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  Speaker 1: Black for cash at the height of his sex trafficking
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  Speaker 1: scheme merits of full investigation from law enforcement and Congress.
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  Speaker 1: Epstein used one hundred and thirty four accounts at jp
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  Speaker 1: Morgan Chase to facilitate thousands of suspicious transactions. Epstein and
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  Speaker 1: his associates had one hundred and thirty four different bank
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  Speaker 1: accounts at JPMC between nineteen ninety eight and twenty thirteen.
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  Speaker 1: These accounts included six accounts opened under Epstein's name, fifty
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  Speaker 1: nine accounts for Epstein's corporations LLC's or trusts one hundred
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  Speaker 1: percent owned by Epstein or for which he served as
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  Speaker 1: a trustee, and sixty nine JPMC accounts for associates of Epstein,
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  Speaker 1: including Glenn Maxwell, Richard Kahn, Darren Endyke, Harry Beller, and
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  Speaker 1: Nadia Marson Kova. According to documents reviewed by Senator Widen's staff,
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  Speaker 1: Epstein engaged in thousands of suspicious financial transactions during his
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  Speaker 1: time as a JPMC client. These transactions warranted real time
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  Speaker 1: red flags within the bank and additional scrutiny. Yet JPMC
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  Speaker 1: did not report most of these suspicious transactions to the
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  Speaker 1: Treasury Department until years later. These delays and lack of
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  Speaker 1: scrutiny by JPMC allowed EPSTEIN to have ready and reliable
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  Speaker 1: access to cash necessary to recruit, entice, harbor transport, provide for,
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  Speaker 1: and maintain young women and underage girls for the purpose
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  Speaker 1: of human trafficking and sexual abuse. Epstein's suspicious transactions through
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  Speaker 1: JPMC included over five thousand wire transfers totaling approximately one
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  Speaker 1: point one billion. This included the withdrawal of more than
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  Speaker 1: seven million in physical cash and more than three million
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  Speaker 1: indirect payments to women or girls. Many of these transactions
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  Speaker 1: lacked a clear or verifiable business purpose, and it does
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  Speaker 1: not appear that JPMC conducted due contemporaneous diligence on most
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  Speaker 1: of these transactions. Some transactions involved potential victims from Eastern
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  Speaker 1: Europe and the use of correspondent bank accounts in high
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  Speaker 1: risk countries for human trafficking, including Russia, Belarus, Turkmenistan, Latvia
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  Speaker 1: and Lithuania. At the time. An official US State Department
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  Speaker 1: report on human trafficking considered Russia, Belarus, and Lithuania as
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  Speaker 1: a source, transit and destination country for men, women, and
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  Speaker 1: children trafficked for the purpose of forced labor and commercial
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  Speaker 1: sexual exploitation. Additionally, Epstein used his account at JPMC to
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  Speaker 1: pay Glenn Maxwell more than thirty million. According to internal
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  Speaker 1: JPMC account records, Epstein was designated as a high risk
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  Speaker 1: client by JPMC as early as two thousand and eight
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  Speaker 1: due to his connection to human trafficking and underage prostitution.
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  Speaker 1: These internal JPMC records also note that decisions related to
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  Speaker 1: Epstein were elevated to members of jpmc's Operating Committee reporting
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  Speaker 1: directly to CEO Jamie Diamond. In the early two thousands,
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  Speaker 1: Epstein was the target of a federal criminal investigation into
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  Speaker 1: human trafficking by the US Attorney's Office in the Southern
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  Speaker 1: District of Florida. Instead of prosecuting Epstein in two thousand
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  Speaker 1: and eight, the US Attorney's Office, led by Republican appointee
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  Speaker 1: Alex Acosta, signed a sweetheart deal with Epstein that allowed
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  Speaker 1: Epstein to bypass federal sex trafficking charges and plead guilty
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  Speaker 1: to minor state prostitution charges. Had prosecutors in Florida pursued
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  Speaker 1: the federal sex trafficking charges in twosand z eight, Epstein
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  Speaker 1: could have been sent to prison for the rest of
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  Speaker 1: his life. The two thousand and eight non prosecution agreement
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  Speaker 1: with Epstein required Epstein to plead guilty to two state
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  Speaker 1: level prostitution charges, including soliciting an underage person for prostitution.
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  Speaker 1: The deal required Epstein to register as a sex offender
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  Speaker 1: and served thirteen months in a Palm Beach County prison.
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  Speaker 1: As a result of his designation as a sex offender
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  Speaker 1: and convicted felon, Epstein's accounts were required to be subjected
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  Speaker 1: to enhance scrutiny by JPMC and other banks involved in
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  Speaker 1: his financial dealings. While the full extent to which these
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  Speaker 1: transactions were used to facilitate sex trafficking by Epstein and
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  Speaker 1: his co conspirators remain unclear, there was a near constant
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  Speaker 1: movement of cash in and out of Epstein's accounts at
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  Speaker 1: JPMC over the course of two decades. The pattern of
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  Speaker 1: transactions through Epstein's accounts was well outside the ordinary course
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  Speaker 1: of business. All of Wall three banks financing Epstein's activities
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  Speaker 1: new or should have known that his transactions were suspicious.
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  Speaker 1: By failing to do exactly what the Bank Secrecy Act requires,
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  Speaker 1: these Wall Street bankers enabled unspeakable harm the hundreds of
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  Speaker 1: Epstein's victims a five thousand suspicious wire transfers totally one
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  Speaker 1: point one billion. Epstein was arrested by federal law enforcement
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  Speaker 1: in on sex trafficking charges on July six, twenty nineteen.
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  Speaker 1: Although Epstein had been forced to leave JPMC six years earlier,
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  Speaker 1: this new arrest finally spurred the bank to retroactively file
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  Speaker 1: sars related to Epstein's accounts, flagging more than five thousand
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  Speaker 1: suspicious wire transfers totaling one point one billion, moving in
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  Speaker 1: and out of Epstein's accounts at JPMC. At first, on
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  Speaker 1: August thirteenth, twenty nineteen, JPMC filed a SAR reporting four
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  Speaker 1: hundred and sixty nine wire transactions totaling approximately two hundred
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  Speaker 1: and one million. A month later, on September twenty six,
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  Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, JPMC filed the STAR, reporting an additional four thousand,
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  Speaker 1: seven hundred and twenty five wire transactions totaling one point
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  Speaker 1: eight billion involving Epstein and a range of individuals and
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  Speaker 1: entities associated with them. The stars filed by JPMC included
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  Speaker 1: notes containing a litany of red flags, potentially tying the
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  Speaker 1: transactions to sex trafficking. First, the star noted that transactions
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  Speaker 1: involved a dozen entities owned or controlled by Epstein that
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  Speaker 1: engaged in the movement or funds for unknown purposes, and
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  Speaker 1: staff payments, property upkeep and repairs and repairs to his
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  Speaker 1: aeroplane and helicopter. Epstein and Maxwell regularly used Epstein's aircraft
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  Speaker 1: and multiple private residences to transport victims to be abused,
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  Speaker 1: raising concerns that these transactions involved expenses related to second trafficking. Second,
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  Speaker 1: the stars flagged wires involved payments to women in multiple
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  Speaker 1: high risk jurisdictions for sex trafficking, including Russia, Belarus, Lithuania, Turkey,
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  Speaker 1: and Turkmenistan. A significant number of these payments were processed
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  Speaker 1: using correspondent bank services provided by state owned Russian banks
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  Speaker 1: now under US sanction, including Spurbank and Alpha Bank. Third,
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  Speaker 1: the unsealed stars filed by JPMC included redacted names of
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  Speaker 1: many women on Epstein's payroll who may have been either
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  Speaker 1: victims or enablers of Epstein's trafficking activity. These Stars included
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  Speaker 1: substantial redactions related to the identities of women who were
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  Speaker 1: described as having been in a relationship with Epstein or
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  Speaker 1: were procurers of women as part of trafficking. In other cases,
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  Speaker 1: the Stars flagged payments to individuals that were potentially involving prostitution.
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  Speaker 1: The Stars also note that Epstein's wire activity at JPMC
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  Speaker 1: was consistent with negative media involving alleged sex trafficking of miners,
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  Speaker 1: the use of multiple accounts, the misappropriation of funds as
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  Speaker 1: a money manager, and the high risk jurisdiction of the
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  Speaker 1: Russian Federation. The scale at unexplained nature of Epstein's wire
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  Speaker 1: transfer activity through his accounts at JPMC is consistent with
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  Speaker 1: a myriad of money laundering red flags identified by the
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  Speaker 1: Federal Financial Institution Examination Council and interagency body of financial
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  Speaker 1: regulators that prepares AML examination procedure for banks. These red
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  Speaker 1: flags include a large number of incoming or outgoing fund
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  Speaker 1: transfers that take place through a business account where there
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  Speaker 1: appears to be no logical business or other economic purpose
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  Speaker 1: for the wire transfers. Funds transfer activity that is unexplained, repetitive,
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  Speaker 1: or shows unusual patterns. Customers who establish multiple accounts in
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  Speaker 1: various corporate or individual names and lack sufficient business purpose funds.
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  Speaker 1: Transfer activity that occurs to or from a financial secrecy
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  Speaker 1: haven or to or from a high risk geographic location
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  Speaker 1: without an apparent business reason. And unusual transfer of funds
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  Speaker 1: that occur among related accounts or among accounts that involve
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  Speaker 1: the same or related principles. All right, folks, we're going
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  Speaker 1: to wrap up right there, and in the next episode,
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  Speaker 1: we're going to pick up with Section B seven million
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  Speaker 1: in cash withdrawals. All the information that goes with this
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  Speaker 1: episode can be found in the description box.