It was August 2008, the brink of a global financial crisis, and inside JPMorgan Chase & Co. an employee was expressing confidence the bank was about to kick out a wealthy client whose name was becoming infamous: Jeffrey Epstein.
“I would count Epstein’s assets as a probable outflow for ’08,” the staffer wrote in an internal email about Epstein’s roughly $120 million portfolio, several weeks after the customer pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution. “I can’t imagine it will stay (pending Dimon review).”
Epstein remained a JPMorgan client for five more years.
The missive, referring to Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon, is the latest twist in ongoing lawsuits to hold the largest U.S. bank liable for handling Epstein’s money for years before and after his initial indictment in 2006, and in doing so, allegedly facilitating his sex trafficking of young women.
Unclear from the court documents is why the employee, who is not identified, thought the bank’s CEO and chairman would get involved in deciding whether to keep handling Epstein’s money. Trish Wexler, a JPMorgan spokesperson, said the firm has “not seen any evidence of such a review.”
The plaintiff — the U.S. Virgin Islands — wrote in a filing unsealed Wednesday that the email shows the firm’s relationship with Epstein “was reviewed and approved at the highest levels.” The bank is fighting the USVI lawsuit, which it called a “masterclass in deflection,” and another filed by Epstein’s victims, asking judges to dismiss both cases.
The email’s emergence this week underscores anew how JPMorgan’s dealings with Epstein, who died by apparent suicide in 2019, continue to haunt the New York-based bank roughly a decade after it ultimately severed ties.
Epstein entered into a controversial plea deal in mid-2008, under which he was still able to work from a Florida office during the day while serving a 13-month sentence. JPMorgan kept him on as a customer after that conviction.
Epstein’s relationship with former JPMorgan executive Jes Staley is central to the lawsuits. Staley led JPMorgan’s private bank and then its asset management operations, during which time he is alleged to have continued to personally handle the bank’s relationship with Epstein. Staley left the bank in January 2013. Six months later, JPMorgan dropped Epstein as a client.
Following Epstein’s arrest in 2019 on sex trafficking charges, the firm has been facing questions about why it kept providing financial services after his initial guilty plea and what information the company and its executives were privy to over the years.
Staley became CEO of Barclays Plc in 2015. He stepped down from that post in 2021 following a UK Financial Conduct Authority probe into his ties with Epstein. Staley is still contesting the FCA’s findings.
JPMorgan has said allegations involving Staley are unsupported and that any knowledge on his part can’t be imputed to the bank. The banker isn’t a defendant in either lawsuit and has consistently denied knowledge of Epstein’s sexual abuse.
A lawyer for Staley declined to comment.
The case is USVI v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, 22-cv-10904-UA, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
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(Ava Benny-Morrison and Jonathan Browning contributed to this story.)
