Key takeaways:<\/strong><\/p>\n For more than a decade<\/strong>,\u00a0JPMorgan Chase processed over $1 billion in transactions for Jeffrey Epstein –\u00a0<\/strong>including hundreds of millions routed to\u00a0Russian banks and payments to young Eastern European women<\/strong>, opened at least\u00a0134 accounts<\/strong>\u00a0tied to him and his associates, and even\u00a0helped move millions to Ghislaine Maxwell – including $7.4 million for a Sikorsky helicopter<\/strong>\u00a0– while anti\u2013money laundering staff repeatedly flagged large cash withdrawals and wire patterns aligned with known trafficking indicators, according to a new report from the\u00a0NY Times<\/em><\/a>\u00a0following a six-year investigation that involved “some 13,000 pages” of legal and financial records. Funny how they sat on this until now – maybe it’s related to\u00a0this<\/a>, but do read on.<\/p>\n Inside JPMorgan,\u00a0the debate over whether to keep Epstein as a client had been simmering for years<\/strong>. Epstein was lucrative. His accounts held more than $200 million and generated millions in fees, and he opened doors to wealthy prospects and world leaders. He had helped midwife the bank\u2019s 2004 purchase of Highbridge Capital Management, earning a $15 million payday.\u00a0Senior bankers credited him with introductions to figures such as Sergey Brin and Benjamin Netanyahu.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Sure enough, just as more bank employees were losing patience with Epstein in 2011, he began dangling more goodies. That March,\u00a0to the pleasant surprise of JPMorgan\u2019s investment bankers in Israel, they were granted an audience with Netanyahu.<\/strong>\u00a0The bankers informed Staley, who forwarded their email to Epstein with a one-word message: \u201cThanks<\/strong>.\u201d (The bank spokesman said JPMorgan \u201cneither needed nor sought Epstein\u2019s help for meetings with any government leaders.\u201d) And around that same time, Epstein presented an opportunity that, like the Highbridge deal years earlier, had the potential to be transformative.<\/em><\/p>\n This one involved Bill Gates<\/strong>, who had only recently entered Epstein\u2019s orbit. In an apparent effort to ingratiate \u2014 and further entangle \u2014 himself with his bankers and the Microsoft co-founder,\u00a0Epstein pitched Erdoes and Staley on creating an enormous investment and charitable fund with something like $100 billion in assets<\/strong>. -NY Times<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Compliance leaders urged the bank to “exit” the felon<\/strong>\u00a0after anti\u2013money laundering personnel flagged a yearslong pattern of large cash withdrawals and constant wires that, in hindsight, matched known indicators of trafficking and other illicit conduct.;\u00a0instead, top executives overrode objections at least four times<\/strong>, allowed accounts for young women to be opened with scant verification, and paid Epstein directly – the aforementioned $15 million tied to a hedge-fund deal and $9 million in a settlement. Even in 2011, as concerns mounted, internal notes referenced decisions “pending Dimon review,” while Jes Staley, a senior executive and Epstein confidant, traded sexually suggestive messages (\u201cSay hi to Snow White<\/strong><\/a>\u201d) and shared confidential bank information with the client.<\/p>\n Exact dollar figures and destinations across years:<\/strong><\/p>\n JPM of course regrets everything – calling their relationship with Epstein “a mistake and in hindsight we regret it, but we did not help him commit his heinous crimes,” Joseph Evangelisti, a JPMorgan spokesman, said in a statement. “We would never have continued to do business with him if we believed he was engaged in an ongoing sex trafficking operation<\/strong>.” The bank has placed much of the blame on Jes Staley, then a rising executive and close confidant of Epstein. “We now know that trust was misplaced,” Evangelisti said.<\/p>\n Epstein\u2019s ties to JPMorgan reached back to the late 1990s, when then\u2013Chief Executive Sandy Warner met him at 60 Wall Street and urged a lieutenant, Mr. Staley, to do the same.\u00a0Epstein soon became one of the private bank\u2019s top revenue generators.\u00a0<\/strong>A 2003 internal report estimated his net worth at $300 million and attributed\u00a0more than $8 million in fees<\/strong>\u00a0to him that year.<\/p>\n\n
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A Client Too Valuable To Lose<\/h2>\n
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