Court documents have shed light on the Labour former business secretary Peter Mandelson’s apparent contact with the disgraced businessman Jeffrey Epstein after the financier was convicted of procuring an underage girl for prostitution.
The document is a 2019 internal report on Epstein by JP Morgan bank, which had a 15-year relationship with the financier, and was filed to a New York court this week.
It found that Epstein appeared to “maintain a particularly close relationship with Prince Andrew the Duke of York and Lord Peter Mandelson, a senior member of the British government”.
In 2008, Epstein was given an 18-month sentence after pleading guilty to procuring an underage girl. He served time at the private wing of the Palm Beach county stockade in Florida before being released on probation on 22 July 2009.
The JP Morgan report reveals that Epstein wrote to his private banker, Jes Staley, on 17 June 2009 in relation to Mandelson to say: “Peter will be staying at 71st over weekend, do you want to organize either you, or you and Jamie,, quiertly [sic],, up to you.” At the time, Lord Mandelson was business secretary in the government of Gordon Brown.
It also refers to an email from Mandelson, when he was still business secretary in March 2010, to Epstein saying: “Can Jes send me email on issues re Dodds/Volcker.” The request appears to relate to US regulations in the wake of the financial crisis.
The report also refers to two occasions on which Epstein said he was with “Petie”, which the bank interprets as a reference to Mandelson, in November 2010 and January 2011. Mandelson was out of the government by this point.
The Guardian has contacted Mandelson and a lawyer for the Duke of York for comment on the report. A spokesperson for the Labour peer said: “Lord Mandelson very much regrets ever having been introduced to Epstein. This connection has been a matter of public record for some time. He never had any kind of professional or business relationship with Epstein in any form.” It is understood Mandelson has no recollection or record of staying in Epstein’s house in New York in 2009.
Mandelson appears to have been introduced to Epstein by Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of the tycoon Robert Maxwell. She is serving 20 years in prison in the US for assisting Epstein in sex trafficking underage girls.
The report also raises questions about Prince Andrew’s claim to have cut ties with Epstein in December 2010. The royal’s friendship with Epstein has been criticised, particularly after he stayed with Epstein during a December 2010 visit to New York, which the Duke of York has said was to tell him that they could no longer be in contact.
However, the JP Morgan report states that in February 2011, two months after the Central Park meeting, Epstein wrote to Staley: “Andrew asked for your London schedule.”
Last year, the Duke of York settled a sexual assault case filed against him by Virginia Giuffre for an undisclosed sum, but with no admission of liability. Giuffre was introduced to him through Epstein and Maxwell.
In 2019, federal prosecutors charged Epstein with sex trafficking a minor and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking. Epstein denied the charges and was refused bail. He died months later in custody in an apparent suicide.
The JP Morgan report was commissioned to examine the extent of the bank’s relations with Epstein, which continued until 2013.
Mandelson has given informal advice to the current Labour leadership. A spokesperson for the party said: “There are a whole range of people that Keir Starmer talks to. Obviously he talks to people who were part of the last Labour government, including Peter Mandelson.”
