Investment banking company JPMorgan Chase flagged more than $1 billion in suspicious transactions tied to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, newly unsealed court documents have revealed. The disclosures were ordered to be released by US District Judge Jed Rakoff.
The now unsealed records, part of a lawsuit between the US Virgin Islands and JPMorgan Chase, include hundreds of pages of emails, financial reports, and internal bank documents. They show that JPMorgan had filed several suspicious activity reports (SARs) concerning Epstein as early as 2002, years before his first conviction.
The documents reveal that Epstein's financial dealings extended deep into Wall Street circles. Among the prominent names cited in the SARs is Leon Black, the billionaire co-founder of Apollo Global Management and one of Epstein's long-time associates.
The trove also includes emails between Epstein and Jes Staley, a former senior JPMorgan executive who later became CEO of Barclays. The two exchanged hundreds of messages from 2008 to 2013, with Epstein offering to introduce Staley to high-profile figures such as the co-founders of Google and foreign heads of state as potential clients. None of the individuals mentioned were accused of any wrongdoing.
Staley resigned from Barclays in 2021 amid scrutiny over his relationship with Epstein. In court, Staley denied knowledge of Epstein's abuse of underaged girls but admitted to having a sexual relationship with one of Epstein's assistants.
One of the most significant disclosures is a SAR filed on September 26, 2019, weeks after Epstein's death in a federal jail cell. The report detailed transactions between October 2003 and July 2019 involving Epstein, his affiliated companies, prominent Wall Street figures, and international institutions, including accounts linked to Russian banks Alfa Bank and Sberbank.
In the filing, JPMorgan said it flagged the activity due to “negative media” reports about Epstein's alleged sex trafficking of minors, his use of multiple accounts, and his “relationships with two US presidents.” The report was sent to the US Treasury Department as part of the bank's legal obligation to alert authorities about potentially illicit financial behaviour.
JPMorgan officially cut ties with Epstein in 2013, five years after he pleaded guilty to state prostitution charges in Florida and entered into a controversial non-prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors.
“The bank filed SARs about Epstein early on, and specifically when it exited Epstein from the bank in 2013 and repeatedly between 2013 and 2019, as required,” said Patricia Wexler, a spokesperson for JPMorgan Chase, in a statement to CNN. “It does not appear that anyone in the government or law enforcement acted on those SARs for years.”
JPMorgan Chase has faced significant fallout over its past association with Epstein. In 2023, the bank agreed to pay $290 million to survivors of Epstein's abuse and another $75 million to settle with the US Virgin Islands, where Epstein owned a private island. The bank did not admit wrongdoing in either case.
The US Virgin Islands' lawsuit accused JPMorgan of “facilitating and profiting” from Epstein's sex trafficking operation by ignoring repeated red flags to continue collecting lucrative fees.
Last week, Britain's King Charles stripped Prince Andrew of his royal title over his links to Epstein.
from NDTV News- Special https://ift.tt/exN7rkc
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