JPMorgan’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein have been laid bare in a bombshell new report – as the bank continues to try to quash a lawsuit that looks to link it to the late financier’s Caribbean-based sex-trafficking ring.
The 22-page internal report, prepared by the bank after Epstein’s arrest in 2019, reportedly showed how the sex offender would regularly provide business advice to then-exec Jes Staley, as well as personal help using his high-profile connections.
At the time, Staley – who left his job as chairman of the investment banking unit of JPMorgan Chase in 2013 – was tasked with managing Epstein’s multimillion-dollar account.
The unreleased report, obtained Monday by the Wall Street Journal, may suggest Staley’s involvement with Epstein goes deeper, and even saw the pedophile offer help with an application one of Staley’s daughters sent to Columbia University.
Perhaps most sensational of the findings, though, are notes that show how Epstein invited Staley to meetings with various senior officials in foreign governments, including that of Dubai and the United Kingdom.
JPMorgan’s 22-page internal report, prepared after Epstein’s arrest in 2019, reportedly showed how the late sex offender would regularly provide business advice to then-exec Jes Staley, and even personal aid using his high-profile connections
JPMorgan insists that 66-year-old Staley – seen here with Epstein, former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers and Bill Gates – concealed such information from the bank. The picture was taken after Epstein was convicted of soliciting prostitution from underage girls in 2008
The new information dump serves as the latest development in a case filed by the US Virgin Islands that contends the New York-based bank knew about Epstein’s behavior for years – and even aided by turning a blind eye to the sex fiend’s sordid exploits.
The bank recently settled a similar suit brought by an unnamed woman on behalf of several of Epstein’s victims, forking over $290million in the process.
The evidence brought by both parties was enough to sway a Manhattan judge to rule the cases could go forward, and order the firm in March to hand over any records involving CEO Jamie Dimon and ex-exec Staley in the process.
The pair, former close friends who held positions of power during Epstein’s crimes at his island compound, have since waged legal war against one another, with Dimon, 67, insisting Staley, 66, knowingly concealed information about Epstein’s account.
The unreleased report serves as the bank’s latest attempt to prove to the court that this is, in fact, the case, as it pursues its own suit against Staley.
It alleges Staley misled them as to the continued actions of Epstein, while the Virgin Isles continues to maintain the high-powered exec – who left his CEO job at Barclays in 2021 – knew about Epstein’s trafficking of women and teenage girls on their island.
The bank also claims Staley was the unnamed executive identified in the aforementioned Epstein accuser’s recently settled suit, which accused the banker of engaging in assaults along with Epstein.
Staley’s lawyers denied the allegations against him and told the Journal that their client, who left the bank in 2013 for a short-lived CEO-stint at Barclays, regrets his relationship with Epstein.
In the report unveiled Monday, penned immediately after Epstein’s second and last arrest, JPMorgan staffers reportedly remarked how Epstein had appeared to be forming relationships with senior executives and officials from various foreign governments, before referring those figures to Staley and the bank for prospective business deals.
Some notable figures named in the Journal’s report included Dubai’s Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem and British politician Peter Mandelson, both of whom engaged in regular correspondence with Epstein after his 2006 arrest in Florida.
Bin Sulayem, the CEO of prominent ports operator DP World, made several visits to Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse between 2011 and 2014, according to JPMorgan – meetings that were only made possible by an email introduction from Epstein.
Perhaps most sensational of the findings, though, are notes that show how Epstein invited Staley to meetings with various senior officials in foreign governments, including then UK Parliament member Peter Mandelson and Dubai port kingpin Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem
The developments comes as current JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has waged legal war against Staley, with Dimon, 67, insisting his former colleagues knowingly concealed information about Epstein’s account
According to the Journal, a message penned in December 2009 saw Epstein tell Staley how to conduct himself around the Emirati businessman during these meetings – reportedly saying: ‘sultan is laying the groundwork for you to establish a serious presence.
‘[JPMorgan’s] reputation in the region is poor,’ the financier warned, roughly a year after Epstein was sentenced to 18 months in jail for a similar sex ring in Florida,
However, under a secret arrangement, the US attorney’s office agreed not to prosecute Epstein for federal crimes – after which the disgraced banker posed for a photo with Epstein, former JPMorgan Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, and Microsoft CEO Bill Gates seemingly in celebration at Epstein’s Manhattan home.
Moreover, Staley sensationally visited Epstein in prison after his 2019 conviction for prostitution in the US Virgin Islands, after which he hung himself before being incarcerated.
The 2019 report also reportedly shows email conversations sent in 2010 between Epstein, Staley and Mandelson – a member of the second chamber of UK Parliament and ex cabinet member. He left office later that year, after the Labor Party lost the general election.
According to the Journal, the document in question involved JPMorgan’s efforts to purchase the Royal Bank of Scotland’s stake in Sempra Energy and a mining deal in the Congo.
In a statement to the Journal, the 69-year-old politician said he ‘very much regrets ever having been introduced to Epstein,’ and that he ‘never had any kind of professional or business relationship with Epstein in any form.’
The report, meanwhile, insists that not just Staley, but the bank’s current head of asset and wealth management, Mary Erdoes, had ‘regular communication with [Epstein] related to certain strategic initiatives and business proposals’ starting in 2011.
The document reportedly claims that several of these messages were personal in nature, with the lion’s share of the correspondence coming between Staley and Epstein – who regularly discussed women and referred to themselves as ‘family.’
In one July 2010 email exchange, Staley reportedly wrote to Epstein, ‘That was fun. Say hi to Snow White.’
In response, Epstein reportedly wrote: ‘[W]hat character would you like next?’; to which Staley replied, ‘Beauty and the Beast.’
In 2011, the pair seemed to engage in an exchange that referenced Epstein’s 2008 conviction in Florida, with Staley telling his high-profile client, ‘You have paid a price for what has been accused. But we know what u[sic] have done for us.
‘We count you as one of our deepest friends. And most honest of people.’
The report also allegedly contained correspondence that suggested Staley shared nonpublic information with Epstein, such as prospective executive shuffles before they were officially announced and word on still-ongoing deals.
The report further claimed that Epstein even offered to help one of Staley’s daughters, Alexa, apply to several graduate schools, including Columbia University.
Epstein reportedly assured Staley he would get in touch with various Columbia officials and connect Staley to the university’s president.
In response to those claims, a spokesperson for the New York Ivy League institution stated: ‘There was no meeting between the president and Staley. Nor did the president know Epstein, then or later. There is no factual basis for these assertions.’
DailyMail.com has reached out Alexa Staley – who graduated Columbia four years later with a Doctor of Philosophy in Physics – for comment.
The report, which claims to show what the bank knew about its ties to Epstein, is now being used by the bank as it continues to faceoff with the government of the Virgin Islands in court, and could soon be made public as proceedings persist.
The island is where Epstein kept a home and is said to have abused dozens of girls.
Last November, Jane Doe sued JPMorgan, alleging the bank secretly presided over Epstein’s trafficking empire on the island, while keeping him as a client for 14 years.
In her complaint, Doe said a ‘powerful financial executive’ who was friends with Epstein had sexually assaulted her but she declined to name him ‘out of fear.’
In The US Virgin Island’s suit, the Caribbean territory has claimed at least one JPMorgan exec knew about Epstein’s trafficking of women and teenage girls.
JPMorgan maintains that Staley – who has nearly four decades of experience in the banking and financial spheres – concealed such information from the bank.
Like the case involving the victims, US Virgin Islands is asking for an undisclosed amount of money from the bank for keeping Epstein on as a client, and missing red flags about his more than a decade of misconduct.
The US territory has called Dimon ‘a likely source of relevant and unique information’ about why JPMorgan kept Epstein on as a client, even after he was arrested in 2006 and later indicted by a grand jury for taking part in a child prostitution ring in Palm Beach, Florida.
A spokesman for the US Virgin Islands government said of the recent settlement: ‘We are gratified to hear about the settlement that will provide victims of Jeffrey Epstein some compensation for JPMorgan Chase’s role in facilitating Epstein’s crimes against them.
‘The US Virgin Islands will continue to proceed with its enforcement action to ensure full accountability for JPMorgan’s violations of law and prevent the bank from assisting and profiting from human trafficking in the future.
‘The US Virgin Islands is committed to protecting women and girls who could otherwise become victims going forward.’
Epstein was a client at the bank between 1998 and 2013 – seven years after he was arrested and convicted of using underage prostitutes in Palm Beach, Florida.
Bank employees were concerned about Epstein’s large cash withdrawals, some of which were used to pay underage girls in exchange for sex, but he was allowed to remain a client for years.
According to depositions that were part of the lawsuit, he would regularly withdraw between $40,000 and $80,000 a month.
The withdrawals rang alarm bells among compliance officials, but he explained them away by claiming they were for fuel and landing fees for his private plane.
Epstein ran much of his criminal activities out of his compound on Little St. James Island, a private itself he owned off the coast that falls in the Virgin Islands’ jurisdiction. The territory has claimed that at least one JPMorgan exec knew about Epstein’s trafficking on their island
‘The parties believe this settlement is in the best interests of all parties, especially the survivors who were the victims of Epstein’s terrible abuse,’ a statement released by JP Morgan on Monday said
Epstein ran much of his criminal activities out of his compound on Little St. James Island, a private itself he owned off the coast that falls in the Virgin Islands’ jurisdiction.
After the full extent of Epstein’s crimes became known in 2019, Staley initially claimed he and Epstein were little more than acquaintances tied by business.
Later he admitted to having a close professional relationship that he established while running JPMorgan’s private bank and asset management division from 2000 to 2009.
Staley became the CEO of Barclay’s in 2015, but later stepped down amidst a probe into whether he had concealed the extent of his relationship with Epstein.
While a high-ranking JPMorgan executive, Staley famously visited Epstein in prison after his conviction for prostitution in 2008.
The bank has denied Staley actually went to the prison, saying instead Epstein visited Staley at his office during a work release for his 18-month prison sentence.
Epstein died in custody while awaiting a sex trafficking trial.
In his absence, the only person to have faced criminal prosecution over his crimes is Ghislaine Maxwell.
She is currently serving a 20 year prison sentence after being convicted of facilitating the abuse.
DailyMail.com has reached out to JPMorgan for comment.
