Senate Democrat’s report says major banks ‘looked the other way’ on Epstein

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The report, published on Tuesday, was released by Senator Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee. He wrote that the banks’ actions “allowed Epstein to have ready access to the mountains of cash he used to lure, harbor and transport his victims” as part of his alleged sex-trafficking ring. Wyden added that bank records and public court filings reviewed by his team “detail a shocking pattern of the biggest Wall Street banks in the country choosing to ignore clear evidence of sex trafficking and money laundering, just to keep a wealthy client on the books”. Beyond shielding Epstein from federal scrutiny, the report says the banks may also have been in violation of federal anti-money laundering laws that would have required them to report the suspicious behaviour. Wyden also took aim at the Department of Justice and the Department of the Treasury, insinuating they did not perform their due diligence in their investigation of Epstein. The financier was found dead of an apparent suicide in a New York jail in 2019 as he awaited trial on federal sex trafficking charges. The report comes as both Republican and Democratic critics question why the Epstein investigation has yielded so few US criminal charges, save for those against Epstein and his longtime confidante Ghislaine Maxwell. Several foreign law enforcement agencies, by contrast, have opened investigations into individuals over their alleged ties to Epstein, including the United Kingdom’s Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew. Wyden called Tuesday’s report “a ready-made roadmap for prosecutors, investigators and members of Congress to finally start holding the Epstein class accountable”. The report cited the conduct of JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank and Bank of America, naming several bankers at the institutions it said should be investigated. It also named several Epstein “accomplices” who allegedly “moved significant amounts of cash around the world on Epstein’s behalf”. The investigators said Bank of America “likely violated” federal anti-money laundering laws by failing to report $170m in payments to Epstein from billionaire investor Leon Black. Among its other allegations, the report charged that JPMorgan Chase executives “coached Epstein on how to withdraw cash through shell companies instead of his personal accounts, helping him conceal information from compliance personnel and government regulators”. All three banks previously reached multimillion-dollar settlements with Epstein survivors, under which they admitted no wrongdoing. “We take our legal and regulatory obligations seriously and, as we have previously said, the bank did not facilitate wrongdoing,” a Bank of America spokesman said in response to Wyden’s report. A spokesperson for Deutsche Bank said it “regrets our historical connection with Jeffrey Epstein”. “We have cooperated with regulatory and law enforcement agencies regarding their investigations and have been transparent in addressing deficiencies and investing in strengthening our control environment in parallel,” the spokesperson said in a statement. JPMorgan Chase, which also reached a settlement with Epstein survivors in 2023, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Democrats have seized on the Trump administration’s handling of investigative files related to Epstein as a source of criticism. But the issue has also gained rare bipartisan support. Last November, the Senate and House of Representatives passed a law requiring the Justice Department to release all the files within 30 days. The Justice Department said that all files had been released as of January, though they have been criticised for the level of redactions they contain. Lawmakers have since introduced a new bill that would impose criminal penalties if full, unredacted access to the Epstein files is not granted to survivors or local and state law enforcement conducting relevant investigations. Wyden’s report contains some of the most substantial allegations about the Epstein files since the January release, and comes just three months before the midterm elections in November. For his part, Trump has repeatedly denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes, maintaining the pair’s well-documented friendship had ended in the early 2000s. His vice president, JD Vance, recently said the administration was not trying to withhold any information, but that it had “screwed up” its public communications. Several polls have shown Americans remain deeply unsatisfied with the level of transparency and accountability surrounding the Epstein files. 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