Latest / The Vault: The Epstein Files / Mega Edition: Ron Wyden’s Report on Wall Street and Jeffrey Epstein (Part 1-4) (10/19/26)
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: What's up everyone and welcome to another episode of the
- 0:03Speaker 1: Epstein Chronicles. In this episode, we're going to begin taking
- 0:07Speaker 1: a look at the report put together by Senator Wyden
- 0:11Speaker 1: discussing Jeffrey Epstein and his enabling by the banks. 1.
- 0:16Speaker 1: Executive Summary and Key Findings Senator Wyden's investigative staff on
- 0:21Speaker 1: the Senate Committee on Finance conducted a multi-year investigation into
- 0:26Speaker 1: transactions that financed Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking activity. The investigation
- 0:31Speaker 1: revealed how major compliance failures at several Wall Street banks
- 0:36Speaker 1: enabled Epstein for years. By failing to report or choosing
- 0:40Speaker 1: not to report his suspicious financial transactions to federal law enforcement,
- 0:44Speaker 1: these banks allowed Epstein to send cash payments and wire
- 0:47Speaker 1: transfers to his victims, friends, and other collaborators around the world.
- 0:53Speaker 1: The bankers who need to be asking questions didn't ask them.
- 0:57Speaker 1: Jeffrey Epstein's crimes were hiding in plain sight. The investigation
- 1:01Speaker 1: found significant evidence that JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank, and Bank
- 1:05Speaker 1: of America violated federal anti-money laundering laws by failing to
- 1:09Speaker 1: screen and report Epstein's suspicious financial transactions in a timely manner.
- 1:14Speaker 1: A review by Senator Wyden's staff of records housed at
- 1:18Speaker 1: the U.S. Department of the Treasury, as well as internal
- 1:21Speaker 1: bank records, determined that top executives at major Wall Street
- 1:24Speaker 1: banks were aware of Epstein's suspicious financial activity for years.
- 1:30Speaker 1: but withheld the information from the U.S. government and protected
- 1:33Speaker 1: Epstein from federal scrutiny. Wall Street banks looked the other
- 1:37Speaker 1: way as Epstein withdrew millions of dollars in cash with
- 1:41Speaker 1: no clear business purpose and was party to thousands of
- 1:44Speaker 1: suspicious wire transfers worth more than a billion dollars. These
- 1:48Speaker 1: banks failed to conduct appropriate due diligence on more than
- 1:52Speaker 1: $ 170 million in payments to Epstein from billionaire Leon Black.
- 1:56Speaker 1: In fact, documents reviewed during this investigation show demonstrate that
- 2:00Speaker 1: JPMC's senior leadership repeatedly protected Epstein as a client despite
- 2:05Speaker 1: repeated warnings from internal compliance personnel. The documents also show
- 2:11Speaker 1: that even after JPMC formally terminated Epstein as a client
- 2:15Speaker 1: due to human trafficking concerns, the bank still waited years
- 2:20Speaker 1: to report his activity to regulators, and top bankers eagerly
- 2:24Speaker 1: continued to work with him informally and through other channels,
- 2:28Speaker 1: where he could continue to be a source of referrals
- 2:31Speaker 1: for other ultra-wealthy clients. The Department of Justice, Treasury Department,
- 2:35Speaker 1: Federal Reserve, and Comptroller of the Currency must conduct thorough
- 2:39Speaker 1: investigations of the activities laid out in this report and
- 2:43Speaker 1: must levy fines or criminal penalties as appropriate. These investigations
- 2:48Speaker 1: should include examination of the conduct of individual bankers involved
- 2:53Speaker 1: in the handling of transactions through Epstein's accounts. Furthermore, This
- 2:57Speaker 1: report outlines necessary legislative reforms to federal anti-money laundering laws
- 3:03Speaker 1: intended to deter future compliance failures involving accounts held by
- 3:08Speaker 1: ultra-high net worth individuals. Federal anti-money laundering laws are in
- 3:12Speaker 1: place to require banks to notify the government in real
- 3:15Speaker 1: time of financial activity that may be happening in support
- 3:18Speaker 1: of dangerous crimes like human trafficking, fentanyl trafficking, and the
- 3:23Speaker 1: financing of terrorism. banks cannot be allowed to ignore federal
- 3:27Speaker 1: law simply because they fear alienating wealthy clients. Finally, this
- 3:32Speaker 1: report reveals that on March 26, 2026, Senator Wyden sat
- 3:37Speaker 1: for a taped interview to discuss his investigation with then
- 3:40Speaker 1: 60 Minutes correspondent Sharon Alfonsi. The interview was part of
- 3:45Speaker 1: a broader segment being prepared by 60 Minutes regarding the
- 3:48Speaker 1: conduct of Wall Street banks and the government of the U.S.
- 3:51Speaker 1: Virgin Islands, with regard to Jeffrey Epstein and his associates. However,
- 3:56Speaker 1: shortly after taping of the interview, CBS News leadership fired
- 4:01Speaker 1: Sharon Alfonsi. As a result, the interview with Senator Wyden
- 4:05Speaker 1: will not be aired, and it's unclear whether CBS News
- 4:08Speaker 1: leadership will allow the broader segment to run. The evidence
- 4:12Speaker 1: presented in this report supports the following findings. Bank of
- 4:16Speaker 1: America likely violated... Federal anti-money laundering laws by failing to
- 4:21Speaker 1: properly screen and report $ 170 million in payments from Leon
- 4:24Speaker 1: Black to Jeffrey Epstein. 2. Billionaire Leon Black was Jeffrey
- 4:29Speaker 1: Epstein's single largest source of funding. Epstein relied heavily on
- 4:33Speaker 1: large payments from Black to bankroll his sex trafficking activity,
- 4:37Speaker 1: just like I told you. Remember all the people that
- 4:40Speaker 1: told you it was Les Wexner?
- 4:41Speaker 2: Not me.
- 4:42Speaker 1: He was part of it, but it was always Leon
- 4:45Speaker 1: Black in the background. JPMC likely violated federal anti-money laundering
- 4:50Speaker 1: laws by under-reporting Epstein's suspicious financial activity to the U.S.
- 4:55Speaker 1: Treasury Department. 4. Multiple top executives at JPMC are implicated
- 5:01Speaker 1: in major compliance failures related to Jeffrey Epstein. Several of
- 5:05Speaker 1: the bankers who were personally handled Epstein's accounts, spoke with
- 5:09Speaker 1: Epstein regularly, and failed to report Epstein's suspicious transactions are
- 5:14Speaker 1: still employed in senior positions at the bank today. After
- 5:17Speaker 1: forcing Epstein to leave the bank, top executives at JPMC
- 5:21Speaker 1: withheld information on Epstein from the U.S. government and continued
- 5:25Speaker 1: working with Epstein as a source of referrals for business
- 5:29Speaker 1: with other ultra-wealthy clients, including billionaire Leon Black. Top JPMC
- 5:35Speaker 1: executives coached Epstein on how to withdraw cash through shell
- 5:39Speaker 1: companies instead of his personal accounts, helping him conceal information
- 5:43Speaker 1: from compliance personnel and government regulators. Top JPMC executives had
- 5:49Speaker 1: knowledge of the pervasive presence of young women or underage
- 5:52Speaker 1: girls at Epstein's homes. 8. Deutsche Bank ignored massive withdrawals
- 5:58Speaker 1: of cash for questionable purposes for Epstein's accounts, protecting the
- 6:03Speaker 1: bank's lucrative business interest in maintaining Epstein as a client. 9. JPMC,
- 6:09Speaker 1: Bank of America, and Deutsche Bank did not appropriately request
- 6:13Speaker 1: business records to substantiate or verify the business purpose of
- 6:17Speaker 1: major suspicious transactions involving Epstein. 10. The conduct of individual
- 6:23Speaker 1: bankers employed by JPMC, Bank of America, and Deutsche Bank
- 6:27Speaker 1: in relation to their handling of accounts held by Epstein
- 6:30Speaker 1: and Leon Black merits investigation by federal prosecutors and financial regulators.
- 6:36Speaker 1: This includes, but is not limited to the following bankers,
- 6:39Speaker 1: Paul Morris, Mary Erdos, Jess Staley, Stephen Cutler, John Duffy,
- 6:44Speaker 1: Justin Nelson, Paul Barrett, Mary Casey, David Brigstocke, Jeff Matusow,
- 6:50Speaker 1: Jane Heller, Karen Weiss, and Stuart Oldfield.
- 6:53Speaker 2: 11.
- 6:54Speaker 1: Epstein's accomplices Darren Nindyke and Richard Kahn and Harry Beller
- 6:59Speaker 1: moved significant amounts of cash around the world on Epstein's
- 7:02Speaker 1: behalf in order to finance Epstein's operation. All three former
- 7:06Speaker 1: Epstein employees should be investigated for the key role they
- 7:09Speaker 1: played in Epstein's sex trafficking activity. 2. Background and Methodology
- 7:15Speaker 1: In 2022, Senator Wyden's investigative staff at the Senate Finance
- 7:20Speaker 1: Committee began an investigation into transactions that financed Jeffrey Epstein's
- 7:24Speaker 1: sex trafficking activity. This investigation examined large payments to Epstein
- 7:29Speaker 1: from various ultra-wealthy individuals and to the extent to which
- 7:33Speaker 1: compliance failures at major Wall Street banks enabled Epstein's crimes.
- 7:38Speaker 1: Senator Wyden's investigation began after a report commissioned by the
- 7:42Speaker 1: Apollo Global Management Board of Directors that revealed that Leon
- 7:46Speaker 1: Black paid Epstein $ 158 million over five years for purported
- 7:51Speaker 1: tax and estate planning advice. Because this figure dwarfs typical
- 7:55Speaker 1: compensation for similar tax advisory service, Senator Wyden's Finance Committee
- 7:59Speaker 1: staff conducted an extensive review of this extraordinary compensation scheme.
- 8:05Speaker 1: The tax strategies Epstein allegedly devised to help Black avoid
- 8:09Speaker 1: future estate tax liability and other irregularities identified with respect
- 8:14Speaker 1: to Black's financial dealings with Epstein. As part of this investigation,
- 8:19Speaker 1: staff from the Senate Committee on Finance conducted an in-camera
- 8:23Speaker 1: review of suspicious activity reports filed with the U.S. Treasury
- 8:27Speaker 1: Department by various financial institutions related to Jeffrey Epstein. This
- 8:32Speaker 1: in-camera review of the Epstein-Sars occurred on February 14, 2024,
- 8:38Speaker 1: at a Treasury Department reading room and included bipartisan staff
- 8:42Speaker 1: of both the Chairman and ranking member of the Senate
- 8:45Speaker 1: Finance Committee. Many of these SARS have not been made public.
- 8:50Speaker 1: During this in-camera review with Epstein SARS, Senator Wyden's staff
- 8:54Speaker 1: identified a series of major compliance failures by Wall Street
- 8:58Speaker 1: banks regarding the handling of Epstein's accounts. These banks included,
- 9:02Speaker 1: but were not limited to, J.P. Morgan, Deutsche Bank, and
- 9:05Speaker 1: Bank of America. But these three banks became the focus
- 9:10Speaker 1: of Senator Wyden's investigation. Epstein primarily banked at JPMC from
- 9:15Speaker 1: 1998 to 2013. In 2013, Epstein was forced to exit
- 9:20Speaker 1: JPMC and transferred his assets to Deutsche Bank, where he
- 9:25Speaker 1: was a major client from 2013 until his death in 2019.
- 9:29Speaker 1: Bank of America held accounts for Leon Black that were
- 9:32Speaker 1: used to pay Epstein approximately $ 170 million between 2012 and 2017.
- 9:40Speaker 1: The Epstein-Sars included substantial evidence that several major Wall Street
- 9:43Speaker 1: banks likely violated federal anti-money laundering laws by failing to
- 9:48Speaker 1: contemporaneously report most of Epstein's suspicious financial.
- 9:52Speaker 2: Activity to the U.S. Treasury Department.
- 9:54Speaker 1: This is not a matter of minor errors or occasional omissions.
- 9:58Speaker 1: The investigation found that Wall Street banks failed to report
- 10:01Speaker 1: thousands of suspicious transactions. They made repeated and intentional choices
- 10:07Speaker 1: not to report the financial activity that enabled Epstein's crimes.
- 10:11Speaker 1: The Epstein-Sarrs include damning evidence that the banks failed to
- 10:14Speaker 1: report Epstein's suspicious financial activity to the Treasury Department in
- 10:19Speaker 1: a timely manner, as they're required to do so by law.
- 10:22Speaker 1: JPMC terminated Epstein as a client in 2013, but the
- 10:26Speaker 1: Epstein-Sarrs revealed that it was not until 2019, shortly after
- 10:30Speaker 1: Epstein was arrested on sex trafficking charges, that JPMC Bank
- 10:35Speaker 1: of America and Deutsche Bank retroactively flagged thousands of questionable
- 10:39Speaker 1: transactions moving more than $ 1. 4 billion in and out of
- 10:43Speaker 1: his accounts over the course of nearly two decades. These transactions,
- 10:49Speaker 1: including thousands of wire transfers, major withdrawals of cash, payments
- 10:53Speaker 1: to women and girls, and correspondent banking in high-risk foreign jurisdictions,
- 10:58Speaker 1: including Russia. They also include tens of millions in payments
- 11:02Speaker 1: to his co-conspirator and convicted sex trafficker, Ghislaine Maxwell. The
- 11:07Speaker 1: retroactive flagging raises serious questions as to why these banks
- 11:10Speaker 1: waited so many years before properly identifying and reporting Epstein's
- 11:15Speaker 1: suspicious financial activity to the U.S.
- 11:17Speaker 2: Government.
- 11:19Speaker 1: JPMC knew enough to terminate Epstein as a client in 2013,
- 11:24Speaker 1: so the bank's failure to report until 2019 merits further investigation.
- 11:29Speaker 1: Alright folks, we're going to wrap up right there, and
- 11:31Speaker 1: in the next episode dealing with the topic we're going
- 11:33Speaker 1: to pick up where we left off. All the information
- 11:36Speaker 1: that goes with this episode can be found in the
- 11:39Speaker 1: description box. What's up everyone and welcome to another episode
- 11:43Speaker 1: of the Epstein Chronicles. In this episode, we're diving right
- 11:46Speaker 1: back in to the financial report on Jeffrey Epstein prepared
- 11:50Speaker 1: by Senator Wyden and the Senate. Following the review of
- 11:55Speaker 1: the Epstein-Sars, Senator Wyden's staff began reviewing bank records that
- 11:59Speaker 1: were unsealed during lawsuits against the banks filed by Epstein's
- 12:03Speaker 1: victims and USVI, and news organizations. After the passage of
- 12:07Speaker 1: the Epstein File Transparency Act, Senator Wyden's staff also reviewed
- 12:11Speaker 1: documents unsealed by the U.S. Department of Justice that revealed
- 12:15Speaker 1: information about Epstein's financial activities and those of his wealthy benefactors.
- 12:20Speaker 1: These records included internal correspondence between bank employees, SARs related
- 12:25Speaker 1: to Epstein's accounts, due diligence documents, estate planning structures, and
- 12:30Speaker 1: other business records. Taken together, they reveal the inner workings
- 12:34Speaker 1: of how Wall Street banks made decisions related to Epstein's accounts.
- 12:39Speaker 1: The records reviewed by Senator Wyden's staff demonstrated that top
- 12:43Speaker 1: executives at major Wall Street banks were aware of Epstein's
- 12:46Speaker 1: suspicious financial activity for years, but withheld information from the U.S. government,
- 12:51Speaker 1: protecting Epstein from federal scrutiny. The documents suggest there was
- 12:55Speaker 1: at least two reasons for the Wall Street banks to
- 12:58Speaker 1: protect Epstein.
- 12:59Speaker 2: One, his money.
- 13:01Speaker 1: Epstein was an ultra-wealthy individual who was among JPMC's largest
- 13:05Speaker 1: private banking clients. He generated millions in fees for JPMC
- 13:09Speaker 1: every year. Epstein was part of an elite group known
- 13:12Speaker 1: within JPMC as the Wall of Cash. 2. His friend's money.
- 13:18Speaker 1: Bankers sought to continue working with Epstein even after he
- 13:20Speaker 1: was terminated as a JPMC client because they believed he
- 13:24Speaker 1: had influence over a cadre of wealthy individuals like billionaire
- 13:27Speaker 1: Leon Black. This report outlines the findings of the investigation
- 13:32Speaker 1: conducted by Senator Wyden's staff and proposes reforms to federal
- 13:37Speaker 1: anti-money laundering laws to deter banks from looking the other
- 13:40Speaker 1: way with regard to suspicious activity involving ultra-wealthy clients. The
- 13:45Speaker 1: report also calls on federal bank regulators and the DOJ
- 13:49Speaker 1: to promptly take action to hold banks and their employees
- 13:52Speaker 1: responsible for significant compliance failures that enabled Epstein sex trafficking
- 13:56Speaker 1: activity for nearly two decades. 3. Federal law requires timely
- 14:01Speaker 1: reporting of suspicious financial transactions. Under the Bank Secrecy Act, BSA,
- 14:07Speaker 1: financial institutions are required to maintain anti-money laundering programs that
- 14:12Speaker 1: conduct ongoing due diligence of its customers and promptly report
- 14:16Speaker 1: suspicious transactions by filing SARs with the U.S.
- 14:19Speaker 2: Treasury Department.
- 14:21Speaker 1: Banks are legally required to monitor customer activity and flag
- 14:24Speaker 1: suspicious transactions contemporaneously in order to prevent the U.S. banking
- 14:29Speaker 1: system from being used to facilitate criminal activity, including human trafficking.
- 14:35Speaker 1: Legally mandated AML programs must utilize compliance departments, train to
- 14:40Speaker 1: screen and escalate potentially suspicious transactions, transaction monitoring software, and
- 14:45Speaker 1: robust know-your-customer and customer due diligence efforts, to identify patterns
- 14:50Speaker 1: indicative of potential illicit activity, such as large movements of cash,
- 14:55Speaker 1: unusual wire transfers or payments that lack a clear business purpose.
- 15:00Speaker 1: Under the BSA, banks are required to file SARs when
- 15:03Speaker 1: they detect a known or suspected violation of federal law
- 15:07Speaker 1: or a suspicious transaction related to a money laundering activity
- 15:11Speaker 1: or a violation of the Bank Secrecy Act. Specifically, a
- 15:14Speaker 1: bank must file a SAR if it knows, suspects, or
- 15:17Speaker 1: has reason to suspect that a transaction has no business
- 15:21Speaker 1: or apparent lawful purpose or is not the sort in
- 15:23Speaker 1: which a particular customer would normally be expected to engage,
- 15:27Speaker 1: and the institution knows of no reasonable explanation for the
- 15:30Speaker 1: transaction after examining the available facts, including the background and
- 15:35Speaker 1: possible purpose of the transaction. The BSA also requires financial
- 15:40Speaker 1: institutions to file SARs in a timely manner. A bank
- 15:44Speaker 1: must file a SAR within 30 days after the date
- 15:47Speaker 1: of initial detection of facts that may constitute a basis
- 15:51Speaker 1: for filing a suspicious activity report. According to Treasury Department
- 15:55Speaker 1: Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, FinCEN, in no case shall reporting
- 16:00Speaker 1: be delayed more than 60 calendar days after the date
- 16:03Speaker 1: of initial detection of a reportable transaction. Additionally, the BSA's
- 16:08Speaker 1: Customer Due Diligence Rule requires financial institutions to maintain policies
- 16:13Speaker 1: and procedures in place to understand the nature and purpose
- 16:17Speaker 1: of customer relationships and conduct ongoing monitoring to identify and
- 16:21Speaker 1: report suspicious transactions. A key purpose of AML laws and
- 16:26Speaker 1: regulation is for banks to give law enforcement real-time information
- 16:30Speaker 1: to enable it to detect violations of law and protect
- 16:33Speaker 1: public safety. This is especially true when suspicious financial activity
- 16:38Speaker 1: involves human trafficking, dangerous narcotics like fentanyl, organized crime, and
- 16:43Speaker 1: the financing of terrorism. Failing to file a timely SAR
- 16:47Speaker 1: is both illegal and dangerous. It can deprive federal law
- 16:51Speaker 1: enforcement of the information needed to stop dangerous criminals because
- 16:55Speaker 1: JPMC terminated Jeffrey Epstein as a client in 2013 but
- 17:00Speaker 1: waited until 2019 to file thousands of SARs on his transactions.
- 17:04Speaker 1: No one could credibly claim that SARS were filed within
- 17:07Speaker 1: 30 days of detecting suspicious activity. Senator Wyden's investigators thus
- 17:13Speaker 1: believe that JPMC failed to comply with the Bank Secrecy
- 17:17Speaker 1: Act for the entire duration of its relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
- 17:21Speaker 1: Part 4. Bank of America failed to properly screen and
- 17:25Speaker 1: report Leon Black's payments to Epstein. Between 2012 and 2017,
- 17:28Speaker 1: billionaire financier Leon Black paid Epstein $ 170 million for purported
- 17:35Speaker 1: tax advice and estate planning services. According to a settlement
- 17:39Speaker 1: agreement signed by Black in USVI, Epstein then used the
- 17:43Speaker 1: money and paid him to fund his sex trafficking activity
- 17:46Speaker 1: in USVI. As part of the investigation, Finance Committee investigators
- 17:51Speaker 1: reviewed SARS filed with the U.S. Treasury Department in 2020
- 17:55Speaker 1: by Bank of America regarding Leon Black's accounts. These SARS
- 17:59Speaker 1: were filed by Bank of America on February 7, 2020,
- 18:04Speaker 1: nearly eight months after Epstein was arrested and many years
- 18:07Speaker 1: after Black's cash had been deposited in Epstein's accounts, raising
- 18:12Speaker 1: questions about Bank of America's handling of large wire transfers
- 18:15Speaker 1: from Black to Epstein. The SAR suggests that Bank of
- 18:19Speaker 1: America waved through the $ 170 million Black wired Epstein without
- 18:23Speaker 1: conducting any meaningful due diligence or probing the purpose of
- 18:27Speaker 1: the payments. The SARS also show that Bank of America
- 18:31Speaker 1: waited five to seven years before flagging the payments to
- 18:34Speaker 1: the Treasury Department. In doing so, Bank of America may
- 18:38Speaker 1: have violated federal laws requiring financial institutions to conduct due
- 18:42Speaker 1: diligence on their customers and report suspicious financial activity to
- 18:46Speaker 1: the U.S. government in a timely manner. According to the
- 18:50Speaker 1: Treasury Department records, Leon Black, as well as related individuals
- 18:54Speaker 1: and entities, maintained accounts at Bank of America that were
- 18:58Speaker 1: used to pay Epstein approximately $ 170 million over a five-year period.
- 19:04Speaker 1: The payments to Epstein came from a series of accounts
- 19:06Speaker 1: at Bank of America, controlled by Black. The Black accounts
- 19:10Speaker 1: were made to two entities controlled by Epstein, Southern Trust
- 19:14Speaker 1: Company Incorporated, Southern Trust, accounts at Deutsche Bank and the
- 19:17Speaker 1: Financial Trust Company, accounts at JPMC. The payments were made
- 19:22Speaker 1: through 18 large wire transfers from the Black account to
- 19:26Speaker 1: Epstein's accounts. The wires were generally between $ 8 to $ 10 million,
- 19:30Speaker 1: but in some cases were substantially larger, including one payment
- 19:34Speaker 1: of $ 20 million in July of 2014. Most transactions occurred
- 19:39Speaker 1: between 2013 and 2015, when $ 140 million was transferred from
- 19:44Speaker 1: Black's accounts to Epstein's Southern Trust Company accounts at Deutsche Bank.
- 19:49Speaker 1: Despite the unusually large size of the payments and Epstein's
- 19:52Speaker 1: lack of credentials and licenses related to tax and estate
- 19:56Speaker 1: planning services, the Treasury Department records suggest that Bank of
- 20:01Speaker 1: America did not conduct significant due diligence on the payments
- 20:05Speaker 1: and did not report the transactions to the Treasury Department
- 20:08Speaker 1: until February 2020, eight months after Epstein was arrested and
- 20:12Speaker 1: seven years after the payments began. A. The wire transfer
- 20:18Speaker 1: activity does not have a verifiable business purpose. In Bank
- 20:22Speaker 1: of America's February 7, 2020 SAR filing, the bank flagged
- 20:26Speaker 1: $ 156 million paid by the black accounts to Epstein and
- 20:30Speaker 1: stated that the wire transfer activity does not have a
- 20:33Speaker 1: verifiable business purpose. The bank's 2020 filing also stated that
- 20:38Speaker 1: years-old transactions had no apparent economic, business, or lawful purpose.
- 20:43Speaker 1: Bank of America also filed a second SAR eight months
- 20:47Speaker 1: later in October of 2020, flagging two potentially unusual wires
- 20:52Speaker 1: from the black accounts to Epstein that the bank had
- 20:55Speaker 1: failed to identify, one for $ 5. 5 million in November of
- 20:57Speaker 1: 2012 and another for $ 8 million in 2017. This is
- 21:04Speaker 1: evidence of a significant compliance failure by Bank of America.
- 21:08Speaker 1: It's alarming that a major bank waved through $ 170 million
- 21:12Speaker 1: in wire transfers from a billionaire to a registered sex
- 21:15Speaker 1: offender only to conclude they had no verifiable business purpose
- 21:19Speaker 1: years later. It's also emblematic of a larger pattern across
- 21:23Speaker 1: Wall Street where financial institutions do not sufficiently scrutinize ultra-wealthy
- 21:28Speaker 1: clients like Leon Black for fear that the clients who
- 21:31Speaker 1: don't want to answer questions will simply take their business elsewhere.
- 21:36Speaker 1: Investigators into the crimes of Epstein have thus uncovered an
- 21:39Speaker 1: important finding that extends beyond Epstein himself. Wall Street banks
- 21:44Speaker 1: have been willing to turn a blind eye to the
- 21:46Speaker 1: suspicious transactions of ultra-wealthy clients, even if the failure to
- 21:51Speaker 1: scrutinize and report these transactions runs directly afoul of federal law.
- 21:56Speaker 1: If federal prosecutors are serious about preventing the next Jeffrey Epstein,
- 22:00Speaker 1: they must hold Wall Street accountable. It does not appear
- 22:04Speaker 1: that Bank of America ever asked Black or Epstein for
- 22:06Speaker 1: additional information or business records to substantiate the purported tax
- 22:11Speaker 1: and estate planning services Epstein claimed he was performing for
- 22:15Speaker 1: $ 170 million. Epstein was not a credentialed tax advisor, and
- 22:20Speaker 1: had Bank of America conducted thorough due diligence, it likely
- 22:24Speaker 1: would have resulted in a timelier determination that the wire
- 22:27Speaker 1: activity did not have verifiable economic, business, or lawful purposes.
- 22:33Speaker 1: Black's account at Bank of America were supervised by Jane Heller.
- 22:36Speaker 1: DOJ records identify Jane Heller as one of Mr. Black's
- 22:40Speaker 1: principal bankers at Bank of America during the period in
- 22:43Speaker 1: which the payments to Epstein occurred. One 2014 email by
- 22:47Speaker 1: employees at Leon Black's family office indicate that Jane Heller
- 22:51Speaker 1: is calling every day for this statement, making clear she
- 22:54Speaker 1: was running point on coverage of Black's accounts. Another internal
- 22:58Speaker 1: Bank of America document noted that BOFA Jane Heller, already
- 23:03Speaker 1: has a relationship with Black that includes a $ 400 million
- 23:07Speaker 1: art-secured line. Alright folks, we're going to wrap up right here,
- 23:11Speaker 1: and in the next episode dealing with the topic we're
- 23:13Speaker 1: going to pick up where we left off. All the
- 23:15Speaker 1: information that goes with this episode can be found in
- 23:18Speaker 1: the description box. What's up everyone, and welcome to another
- 23:22Speaker 1: episode of the Epstein Chronicles. In this episode, we're going
- 23:26Speaker 1: to dive right back in to the Ron Wyden Report,
- 23:29Speaker 1: discussing Jeffrey Epstein and his ties to Wall Street. Bank
- 23:33Speaker 1: employees managing accounts for high net worth individuals develop deep
- 23:37Speaker 1: knowledge of their clients and their business interests. Heller and
- 23:41Speaker 1: Weiss were surely familiar with Epstein's background and the extraordinary
- 23:45Speaker 1: nature of his compensation scheme. Heller and Weiss likely understood
- 23:50Speaker 1: that payments of $ 170 million over five years for purported
- 23:55Speaker 1: tax and estate planning are not routine in the tax
- 23:58Speaker 1: or estate planning industries. Bank of America's failure to scrutinize
- 24:03Speaker 1: the purpose of the payments blade made to Epstein protected
- 24:07Speaker 1: the bank's interest in the lucrative business opportunities that came
- 24:11Speaker 1: with having Black as a client. Billionaire clients like Leon
- 24:15Speaker 1: Black can generate millions of dollars in fees for banks
- 24:18Speaker 1: every year across a variety of financial services, including private
- 24:23Speaker 1: wealth management, brokerage, and large lines of credit against assets
- 24:27Speaker 1: like stocks, art collections, yachts, Bank of America, as well
- 24:34Speaker 1: as the individuals assigning the Blacks accounts, had a large
- 24:38Speaker 1: incentive to protect this revenue stream. For example, Bank of
- 24:41Speaker 1: America made four loans worth more than $ 500 million related
- 24:45Speaker 1: to Leon Black's art collection, Yacht, and Private Jet. One
- 24:50Speaker 1: of those loans was a $ 484 million loan against his
- 24:54Speaker 1: art collection at a rate of 1.43%. Similarly, emails between
- 24:59Speaker 1: Epstein and Black's family office describe an $ 18 million loan
- 25:03Speaker 1: through the company that owns Black's yacht. In an email,
- 25:06Speaker 1: Eileen Alexandrinson, the head of Black's family office, told Epstein
- 25:11Speaker 1: that Jane Heller essentially set up a personal loan collateralized
- 25:15Speaker 1: by the boat. With an art collection, with an appraised
- 25:18Speaker 1: value exceeding $ 2. 6 billion, and more than 30 million Apollo
- 25:23Speaker 1: shares worth at least $ 4 billion, the financial opportunities for
- 25:26Speaker 1: Bank of America resulting from Black being a customer, were substantial.
- 25:31Speaker 1: The Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve must both conduct
- 25:35Speaker 1: investigations into Bank of America's handling of these payments from
- 25:39Speaker 1: Black to Epstein. These investigations must review 1. whether bank
- 25:43Speaker 1: systems flagged these payments for compliance officials, 2. whether the
- 25:48Speaker 1: payments were escalated to management for further review, and 3.
- 25:52Speaker 1: whether proper due diligence was conducted to verify the purpose
- 25:56Speaker 1: of the transactions. These investigations should also determine whether Bank
- 26:01Speaker 1: of America used the authority provided under Section 314B of
- 26:06Speaker 1: the Patriot Act, which provides a safe harbor to confidentially
- 26:11Speaker 1: request information from other banks on suspicious transactions. Billionaire Leon
- 26:17Speaker 1: Black was overwhelmingly the largest source of funding for Epstein
- 26:20Speaker 1: sex trafficking. As part of the investigation, Senator Wyden's investigators
- 26:25Speaker 1: obtained records of a settlement between billionaire Leon Black, and
- 26:29Speaker 1: the USVI. As part of the settlement, Black agreed to
- 26:33Speaker 1: pay $ 62. 5 million and avoided criminal prosecution in the USVI
- 26:38Speaker 1: in relation to matters concerning Jeffrey Epstein. This settlement included
- 26:43Speaker 1: a damning admission that Epstein used the money that Black
- 26:46Speaker 1: paid him to fund his sex trafficking activities in the USVI.
- 26:51Speaker 1: Senator Wyden's investigators also reviewed the extent to which Epstein
- 26:56Speaker 1: relied on Black to as a source of income. This
- 26:59Speaker 1: review identified records unsealed in federal court indicating that Black
- 27:04Speaker 1: was Epstein's primary source of income between 2012 and 2017.
- 27:10Speaker 1: These documents also reveal that Epstein relied disproportionately on Black
- 27:15Speaker 1: to finance his activity. According to an expert report prepared
- 27:19Speaker 1: by a forensic accountant retained by USVI in connection with
- 27:23Speaker 1: a lawsuit against JPMC, From 2013 forward, the only Epstein-controlled
- 27:30Speaker 1: entity that generated any revenue was Southern Trust. In order
- 27:35Speaker 1: to obtain favorable tax treatment, Epstein represented to the government
- 27:40Speaker 1: of the USVI that the Southern Trust provided consulting services
- 27:44Speaker 1: in biomedical and financial informatics. Southern Trust also declared on
- 27:50Speaker 1: tax returns that Southern Trust was a database company in service. However,
- 27:55Speaker 1: These declarations are inconsistent with the Southern Trust's true primary
- 27:59Speaker 1: source of income, which was payments from Leon Black for
- 28:03Speaker 1: purported tax service. According to tax returns filed in the USVI,
- 28:09Speaker 1: Southern Trust reported revenues of approximately $ 184 million between 2013
- 28:12Speaker 1: and 2017. Out of the $ 184 million, $ 166 million came
- 28:14Speaker 1: from Leon Black's accounts at Bank of America. By these metrics,
- 28:26Speaker 1: Leon Black provided Epstein 90% of his income over a
- 28:30Speaker 1: five-year period. Senator Wyden's investigators believe that Epstein's reliance on
- 28:36Speaker 1: Black for cash at the height of his sex trafficking
- 28:38Speaker 1: scheme merits a full investigation from law enforcement and Congress.
- 28:44Speaker 1: Epstein used 134 accounts at JPMorgan Chase to facilitate thousands
- 28:50Speaker 1: of suspicious transactions. Epstein and his associates had 134 different
- 28:57Speaker 1: bank accounts at JPMC between 1998 and 2013. These accounts
- 29:03Speaker 1: included six accounts opened under Epstein's name, 59 accounts for
- 29:08Speaker 1: Epstein's corporations, LLCs or trusts, 100% owned by Epstein or
- 29:14Speaker 1: for which he served as a trustee, and 69 JPMC
- 29:18Speaker 1: accounts for associates of Epstein, including Glenn Maxwell, Richard Kahn,
- 29:22Speaker 1: Darren Indyke, Harry Beller, According to documents reviewed by Senator
- 29:29Speaker 1: Wyden's staff, Epstein engaged in thousands of suspicious financial transactions
- 29:34Speaker 1: during his time as a JPMC client. These transactions warranted
- 29:39Speaker 1: real-time red flags within the bank and additional scrutiny. Yet
- 29:44Speaker 1: JPMC did not report most of these suspicious transactions to
- 29:48Speaker 1: the Treasury Department until years later. These delays and lack
- 29:53Speaker 1: of scrutiny by JPMC allowed Epstein to have ready and
- 29:56Speaker 1: reliable access to cash necessary to recruit, entice, harbor, transport,
- 30:01Speaker 1: provide for, and maintain young women and underage girls for
- 30:06Speaker 1: the purpose of human trafficking and sexual abuse. Epstein's suspicious
- 30:10Speaker 1: transactions through JPMC included over 5,000 wire transfers totaling approximately $ 1. 1 billion.
- 30:19Speaker 1: This included the withdrawal of more than $ 7 million in
- 30:22Speaker 1: physical cash and more than $ 3 million in direct payments
- 30:25Speaker 1: to women or girls. Many of these transactions lacked a
- 30:29Speaker 1: clear or verifiable business purpose, and it does not appear
- 30:33Speaker 1: that JPMC conducted due contemporaneous diligence on most of these transactions.
- 30:40Speaker 1: Some transactions involved potential victims from Eastern Europe and the
- 30:44Speaker 1: use of correspondent bank accounts in high-risk countries for human trafficking.
- 30:49Speaker 1: including Russia, Belarus, Turkmenistan, Latvia, and Lithuania. At the time,
- 30:57Speaker 1: an official U.S. State Department report on human trafficking considered Russia, Belarus,
- 31:02Speaker 1: and Lithuania as a source, transit, and destination country for men, women,
- 31:06Speaker 1: and children trafficked for the purpose of forced labor and
- 31:09Speaker 1: commercial sexual exploitation. Additionally, Epstein used his account at JPMC
- 31:16Speaker 1: to pay Glenn Maxwell more than $ 30 million. According to
- 31:20Speaker 1: internal JPMC account records, Epstein was designated as a high-risk
- 31:24Speaker 1: client by JPMC as early as 2008 due to his
- 31:28Speaker 1: connection to human trafficking and underage prostitution. These internal JPMC
- 31:34Speaker 1: records also note that decisions related to Epstein were elevated
- 31:38Speaker 1: to members of JPMC's operating committee, reporting directly to CEO
- 31:43Speaker 1: Jamie Dimon. In the early 2000s, Epstein was the target
- 31:49Speaker 1: of a federal criminal investigation into human trafficking by the U.S.
- 31:53Speaker 1: Attorney's Office in the Southern District of Florida. Instead of
- 31:58Speaker 1: prosecuting Epstein in 2008, the U.S. Attorney's Office, led by
- 32:02Speaker 1: Republican appointee Alex Acosta, signed a sweetheart deal with Epstein
- 32:07Speaker 1: that allowed Epstein to bypass federal sex trafficking charges and
- 32:11Speaker 1: plead guilty to minor state prostitution charges. Had prosecutors in
- 32:16Speaker 1: Florida pursued the federal sex trafficking charges in 2008, Epstein
- 32:21Speaker 1: could have been sent to prison for the rest of
- 32:23Speaker 1: his life. The 2008 non-prosecution agreement with Epstein required Epstein
- 32:28Speaker 1: to plead guilty to two state-level prostitution charges, including soliciting
- 32:33Speaker 1: an underage person for prostitution. The deal required Epstein to
- 32:37Speaker 1: register as a sex offender and serve 13 months in
- 32:41Speaker 1: a Palm Beach County prison. As a result of his
- 32:44Speaker 1: designation as a sex offender and convicted felon, Epstein's accounts
- 32:48Speaker 1: were required to be subjected to enhanced scrutiny by JPMC
- 32:52Speaker 1: and other banks involved in his financial dealings. While the
- 32:56Speaker 1: full extent to which these transactions were used to facilitate
- 33:00Speaker 1: sex trafficking by Epstein and his co-conspirators remain unclear, there
- 33:05Speaker 1: was a near-constant movement of cash in and out of
- 33:07Speaker 1: Epstein's accounts at JPMC over the course of two decades.
- 33:12Speaker 1: The Pattern of transactions through Epstein's accounts was well outside
- 33:16Speaker 1: the ordinary course of business. All of Wall Street banks
- 33:20Speaker 1: financing Epstein's activities knew or should have known that his
- 33:24Speaker 1: transactions were suspicious. By failing to do exactly what the
- 33:28Speaker 1: Bank Secrecy Act requires, these Wall Street bankers enabled unspeakable
- 33:33Speaker 1: harm to hundreds of Epstein's victims. A. 5,000 suspicious wire
- 33:41Speaker 1: transfers totaling $ 1.
- 33:42Speaker 2: 1 billion.
- 33:43Speaker 1: Epstein was arrested by federal law enforcement in on-sex trafficking
- 33:47Speaker 1: charges on July 6, 2019. Although Epstein had been forced
- 33:51Speaker 1: to leave JPMC six years earlier, this new arrest finally
- 33:56Speaker 1: spurred the bank to retroactively file SARs related to Epstein's accounts.
- 34:01Speaker 1: Flagging more than 5,000 suspicious wire transfers totaling $ 1. 1 billion
- 34:07Speaker 1: moving in and out of Epstein's accounts, at JPMC. At first,
- 34:11Speaker 1: on August 13, 2019, JPMC filed a SAR reporting 469
- 34:13Speaker 1: wire transactions, totaling approximately 201 million. A month later, on
- 34:16Speaker 1: September 26, 2019, JPMC filed a SAR reporting an additional 4,725
- 34:18Speaker 1: wire transactions, totaling 1.8 billion, involving Epstein, and a range
- 34:38Speaker 1: of individuals and entities associated with them. The SARs filed
- 34:42Speaker 1: by JPMC included notes containing a litany of red flags,
- 34:47Speaker 1: potentially tying the transactions to sex trafficking. First, the SAR
- 34:51Speaker 1: noted that transactions involved a dozen entities owned or controlled
- 34:55Speaker 1: by Epstein that engaged in the movement or funds for
- 35:00Speaker 1: unknown purposes and staff payments, property upkeep and repairs, and
- 35:04Speaker 1: repairs to his airplane and helicopter. Epstein and Maxwell regularly
- 35:10Speaker 1: used Epstein's aircraft and multiple private residences to transport victims
- 35:14Speaker 1: to be abused, raising concerns that these transactions involved expenses
- 35:19Speaker 1: related to sex trafficking. Second, the SARS-flagged wires involved payments
- 35:24Speaker 1: to women in multiple high-risk jurisdictions for sex trafficking, including Russia, Belarus, Lithuania, Turkey,
- 35:31Speaker 1: and Turkmenistan. A significant number of these payments were processed
- 35:35Speaker 1: using correspondent bank Services provided by state-owned Russian banks, now
- 35:40Speaker 1: under U.S. sanction, including Sperbank and Alphabank. Third, the unsealed
- 35:46Speaker 1: SARs filed by JPMC included redacted names of many women
- 35:51Speaker 1: on Epstein's payroll who may have been either victims or
- 35:54Speaker 1: enablers of Epstein's trafficking activity. These SARs included substantial redactions
- 36:00Speaker 1: related to the identities of women who were described as
- 36:03Speaker 1: having been in a relationship with Epstein or Epstein's were
- 36:07Speaker 1: procurers of women as part of trafficking. In other cases,
- 36:11Speaker 1: the SARS flagged payments to individuals that were potentially involving prostitution.
- 36:17Speaker 1: The SARS also note that Epstein's wire activity at JPMC
- 36:21Speaker 1: was consistent with negative media involving alleged sex trafficking of minors,
- 36:26Speaker 1: the use of multiple accounts, the misappropriation of funds as
- 36:30Speaker 1: a money manager, and the high-risk jurisdiction of the Russian Federation.
- 36:35Speaker 1: The scale of An unexplained nature of Epstein's wire transfer
- 36:38Speaker 1: activity through his accounts at JPMC is consistent with a
- 36:42Speaker 1: myriad of money laundering red flags identified by the Federal
- 36:46Speaker 1: Financial Institution Examination Council and Interagency Body of Financial Regulators
- 36:53Speaker 1: that prepares AML examination procedure for banks. These red flags
- 36:57Speaker 1: include a large number of incoming or outgoing fund transfers
- 37:01Speaker 1: that take place through a business account, where there appears
- 37:04Speaker 1: to be no logical business or other economic purpose for
- 37:07Speaker 1: the wire transfers. Funds transfer activity that is unexplained, repetitive,
- 37:12Speaker 1: or shows unusual patterns. Customers who establish multiple accounts in
- 37:17Speaker 1: various corporate or individual names and lack sufficient business purpose.
- 37:22Speaker 1: Funds transfer activity that occurs to or from a financial
- 37:26Speaker 1: secrecy haven or to or from a high-risk geographic location
- 37:31Speaker 1: without an apparent business reason. and unusual transfer of funds
- 37:36Speaker 1: that occur among related accounts or among accounts that involve
- 37:40Speaker 1: the same or related principles.
- 37:43Speaker 2: All right, folks, we're going to wrap up right there.
- 37:45Speaker 1: And in the next episode, we're going to pick up
- 37:48Speaker 1: with Section B, $ 7 million in cash withdrawals. All the
- 37:53Speaker 1: information that goes with this episode can be found in
- 37:56Speaker 1: the description box. What's up, everyone, and welcome to another
- 38:00Speaker 1: episode of the Epstein Chronicles. In this episode, we're getting
- 38:04Speaker 1: right back to the Ron Wyden report about Jeffrey Epstein
- 38:08Speaker 1: and Wall Street. According to Treasury Department records reviewed by
- 38:17Speaker 1: Finance Committee investigators and an expert report prepared by a
- 38:22Speaker 1: forensic accountant retained by the Attorney General of USVI as
- 38:26Speaker 1: part of the federal lawsuit against JPMC, the Amador report,
- 38:31Speaker 1: Epstein withdrew more than $ 7 million in cash from his
- 38:34Speaker 1: accounts at JPMC from 2002 to 2013, the equivalent of
- 38:41Speaker 1: over $ 1, 700 in cash a day and $ 650, 000 in cash
- 38:47Speaker 1: every year. This is an extraordinary amount of cash, especially
- 38:51Speaker 1: considering Epstein was a registered sex offender for much of
- 38:55Speaker 1: this time and had a history of paying for sex
- 38:58Speaker 1: with underage victims in cash. Large cash transactions are a
- 39:02Speaker 1: significant indicator of criminal activity. The anonymity of cash makes
- 39:06Speaker 1: it a method of choice for criminal organizations to launder
- 39:09Speaker 1: money or engage in other illicit transactions, including payments for
- 39:14Speaker 1: human trafficking. C. 3 million in direct payments to women.
- 39:20Speaker 1: According to the Amador report, Epstein used his accounts at
- 39:23Speaker 1: JPMC to make over $ 3 million in payments to dozens
- 39:26Speaker 1: of women whose identities have been redacted. According to the
- 39:31Speaker 1: Amador Report, the transactions had no apparent business or other
- 39:35Speaker 1: lawful purpose. Some of these payments were to women in
- 39:39Speaker 1: high-risk jurisdictions like Belarus, Lithuania, and Russia. D. $ 31 million
- 39:45Speaker 1: in payments to Ghislaine Maxwell. According to testimony in federal
- 39:50Speaker 1: court by former JPMC executive Patrick McHugh, Epstein paid Ghislaine
- 39:55Speaker 1: Maxwell at least $ 31 million, including approximately $ 25 million from
- 40:00Speaker 1: his accounts at JPMC. Some of these wire transfers were
- 40:04Speaker 1: substantial and lacked a clear business purpose. For example, in 1999,
- 40:10Speaker 1: Epstein sold $ 18. 3 million worth of stock and then promptly
- 40:14Speaker 1: transferred the cash proceeds to Maxwell. Epstein also conducted transfers
- 40:19Speaker 1: of Maxwell's accounts of $ 5 million in 2002 and $ 7. 4
- 40:24Speaker 1: million in 2007. Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison
- 40:29Speaker 1: sentence after being convicted on federal sex trafficking charges, and
- 40:34Speaker 1: in some of these transfers appears to have facilitated that activity.
- 40:38Speaker 1: For example, on June 15, 2007, Epstein transferred Maxwell's $ 7. 4
- 40:43Speaker 1: million through JPMC accounts which Maxwell used to buy a
- 40:47Speaker 1: Sikorsky helicopter. Maxwell's conviction should trigger additional investigation into whether
- 40:53Speaker 1: JPMC conducted appropriate due diligence on large wire transfers between
- 40:59Speaker 1: Epstein and Maxwell. E. $ 1 million payment to MC2 Model
- 41:04Speaker 1: Management Public reports indicate that Epstein worked directly with certain
- 41:08Speaker 1: modeling agencies to help recruit and procure underage girls as
- 41:13Speaker 1: part of his sex trafficking scheme. This included MC2 Model Management,
- 41:19Speaker 1: an agency founded by French national Jean-Luc Brunel. Brunel was
- 41:24Speaker 1: found dead in a French prison while awaiting trial on
- 41:27Speaker 1: charges relating to the procurement of underage girls for Epstein.
- 41:32Speaker 1: According to federal court records, a 2011 report prepared by
- 41:36Speaker 1: JPMC's Global Corporate Security Division noted that MC2 received $ 1
- 41:42Speaker 1: million from Epstein in 2005. The report also noted that
- 41:46Speaker 1: it's unknown if the money was given as a secret
- 41:49Speaker 1: investment or a payment for services as a procurer, and
- 41:53Speaker 1: that MC2 had two federal tax liens totaling over $ 590, 000.
- 41:59Speaker 1: Public reports and internal JPMC correspondence also indicate that this
- 42:04Speaker 1: $ 1 million helped MC2 get started and that it was
- 42:07Speaker 1: backstopped by a line of credit provided to Epstein by JPMC. Additionally,
- 42:14Speaker 1: unsealed SARs filed by JPMC after Epstein's arrest retroactively flagged
- 42:19Speaker 1: additional payments from Epstein to MC2. Epstein's use of his
- 42:23Speaker 1: accounts at JPMC to help bankroll MC2 merits further investigation. 7.
- 42:31Speaker 1: JPMC failed to report Epstein's suspicious activity to the U.S. government.
- 42:36Speaker 1: According to SAR filings contained in unsealed court records between
- 42:40Speaker 1: 2002 and 2016, JPMC filed only seven SARs flagging only $ 4. 3
- 42:47Speaker 1: million in suspicious transactions from Epstein's accounts. Only after Epstein
- 42:52Speaker 1: was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges did JPMC report
- 42:57Speaker 1: the full extent of Epstein's suspicious financial activity. In August
- 43:02Speaker 1: and September of 2019, JPMC filed two SARs flagging more
- 43:08Speaker 1: than 5,000 suspicious wire transfers, moving approximately $ 1. 3 billion in
- 43:13Speaker 1: and out of Epstein's accounts. After reviewing unsealed internal JPMC emails,
- 43:20Speaker 1: due diligence reports, and reports by forensic accountants, there is
- 43:24Speaker 1: evidence to support the conclusion that JPMC underreported Epstein's suspicious
- 43:29Speaker 1: financial activity to protect Epstein as a client. The simple
- 43:34Speaker 1: fact that Epstein served 13 months in prison on prostitution
- 43:37Speaker 1: charges in Florida and should have subjected his transactions to
- 43:41Speaker 1: JPMC's highest level of scrutiny and oversight. Epstein was one
- 43:46Speaker 1: of the largest individual clients at JPMC and part of
- 43:50Speaker 1: a group of ultra-high net worth clients referred to as
- 43:53Speaker 1: JPMC's Wall of Cash. According to Unsealed Records, decisions related
- 43:59Speaker 1: to Epstein's accounts were closely monitored by high-profile JPMC executives
- 44:04Speaker 1: including Mary Erdos, Stephen Cutler, Jess Daly, and John Duffy.
- 44:09Speaker 1: For example, in 2011, an internal due diligence document noted
- 44:13Speaker 1: that Jeff Staley conferred with Stephen Cutler and the decision
- 44:17Speaker 1: was made to keep Epstein as a private banking client. Similarly,
- 44:21Speaker 1: in a 2013 internal due diligence report noted that senior
- 44:26Speaker 1: management are aware of the relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and
- 44:30Speaker 1: that the Epstein accounts had yearly monitoring as client sensitive. However,
- 44:35Speaker 1: despite this yearly check, JPMC failed to contemporaneously flag over 5,000
- 44:40Speaker 1: suspicious wire transfers. Recently released documents from 2013 show that
- 44:46Speaker 1: JPMC terminated Epstein as a client in 2013 because his
- 44:51Speaker 1: transactions raised money laundering concerns. JPMC believed that the repetitive
- 44:56Speaker 1: nature of Epstein's cash transactions, combined with his personal history,
- 45:01Speaker 1: created a great regulatory risk to keep Epstein as a client. However,
- 45:06Speaker 1: despite concerns about Epstein's transactions being serious enough to terminate
- 45:10Speaker 1: him as a client, JPMC waited six years before reporting
- 45:15Speaker 1: Epstein's activity to regulators. Emails raised the possibility that this
- 45:20Speaker 1: was due to JPMC's executives' desire to continue working with
- 45:24Speaker 1: Epstein as a source of referrals for business with other
- 45:28Speaker 1: ultra-wealthy clients. For example, in August of 2013, Mary Erdos
- 45:34Speaker 1: explicitly approved a request from JPMC bankers to continue working
- 45:39Speaker 1: with Epstein on projects for third-party clients, including billionaire Leon Black.
- 45:44Speaker 1: On August 14, 2013, after exiting Epstein from the bank,
- 45:49Speaker 1: JPMC executive John Duffy emailed Erdos and indicated that Epstein
- 45:54Speaker 1: would be Leon's primary advisor and that he told Epstein
- 45:58Speaker 1: that he would work with him as long as it
- 46:00Speaker 1: was through the client accounts.
- 46:02Speaker 2: JE entities would not be acceptable. That's okay, right?
- 46:06Speaker 1: Erdos responded affirmatively, yes. JPMC's filings also reveal multi-year gaps
- 46:13Speaker 1: where the activity in Epstein's accounts was not the subject
- 46:16Speaker 1: of a SAR, despite the fact that these windows possibly
- 46:20Speaker 1: coincided with key periods of Epstein's sex trafficking activity. For example,
- 46:25Speaker 1: JPMC did not file a single SAR on Epstein's actions
- 46:30Speaker 1: that occurred for a five-year period between May 2003 and
- 46:32Speaker 1: September 2008. even though Epstein withdrew more than $ 3. 5 million
- 46:38Speaker 1: in cash during that period. JPMC also did not file
- 46:42Speaker 1: a single SAR on Epstein's activity for four years between
- 46:46Speaker 1: 2009 and 2012, even though Epstein withdrew another $ 900, 000 in
- 46:51Speaker 1: cash in that period.
- 46:54Speaker 2: Part 8.
- 46:55Speaker 1: Top JPMC executives were aware of Epstein's problematic behavior and
- 47:00Speaker 1: suspicious financial activity. This investigation's review of records indicates that
- 47:05Speaker 1: JPMC's relationship with Epstein was managed by personnel at the
- 47:10Speaker 1: highest levels of the bank. The bank was contemporaneously aware
- 47:15Speaker 1: of his criminal behavior with a senior member of JPMC's
- 47:18Speaker 1: operating committee, testifying that as early as 2006, JPMC the
- 47:23Speaker 1: bank was aware that Epstein had been accused of used
- 47:27Speaker 1: of paying cash to underage girls and young women brought
- 47:31Speaker 1: to his home. Regardless of these allegations, Epstein was treated
- 47:35Speaker 1: as a star client. A. Epstein was a top JPMC
- 47:40Speaker 1: client and part of a group known as the Wall
- 47:42Speaker 1: of Cash. From 1998 to 2013, Jeffrey Epstein was a
- 47:47Speaker 1: client of JPMC's private bank, where he received a range
- 47:50Speaker 1: of financial services catered to ultra-high net worth individuals and
- 47:55Speaker 1: closely held business. Epstein's total balance at JPMC often exceeded
- 48:00Speaker 1: $ 140 million. and more than a billion in cash flows
- 48:04Speaker 1: moved through Epstein's accounts at JPMC between 2003 and 2013.
- 48:08Speaker 1: Unsealed records revealed that Jeffrey Epstein was one of JPMC's
- 48:14Speaker 1: single largest clients and top revenue generator for the bank.
- 48:18Speaker 1: Epstein was also regularly included in an elite list of
- 48:22Speaker 1: ultra-high net worth clients, referred to as the Wall of Cash.
- 48:27Speaker 1: In a May 28, 2003 due diligence report, JPMC indicated
- 48:31Speaker 1: that Epstein accounts generated one of the largest annual revenue
- 48:35Speaker 1: flows of private clients in the private bank. Similarly, in
- 48:40Speaker 1: September of 2009, JPMC's private bank included Epstein in its
- 48:45Speaker 1: list of top clients, indicating that Epstein's balances at JPMC
- 48:49Speaker 1: at the time were at least $ 142 million. JPMC executives
- 48:55Speaker 1: viewed Epstein as an essential client and eagerly continued to
- 48:58Speaker 1: pursue new business with Epstein, even after he pleaded guilty
- 49:02Speaker 1: to state charges related to sex crimes involving underage girls
- 49:06Speaker 1: in 2008. In fact, the day Epstein got out of prison,
- 49:11Speaker 1: in 2009, JPMC private banker Jeff Matusow emailed Mary Casey,
- 49:16Speaker 1: currently JPMC's vice chair of the private bank, asking her
- 49:21Speaker 1: to be his buddy on Epstein's accounts. Further investigation is
- 49:25Speaker 1: needed to determine whether Matusow, Casey, and others advocated internally
- 49:30Speaker 1: for JPMC to reduce monitoring, oversight, and reporting on Epstein's accounts.
- 49:37Speaker 1: All right, folks, we're going to wrap up right there.
- 49:39Speaker 1: And in the next episode, we're going to pick up
- 49:41Speaker 1: with after Epstein's release from prison. All the information that
- 49:45Speaker 1: goes with this episode can be found in the description box.