JPMorgan’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein may be probed by Democrats after Senate takeover, says report

The Democrats in the Senate will initiate investigation into JPMorgan Chase’s banking relationship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a CNBC report said. The Democrats may start the probe after they take control of Congress early next year. The Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee would look into how top executives at JPMorgan used to deal with Epstein, the report said citing a source familiar with the panel on Thursday. The finance panel may be chaired by Senator Ron Wyden in January next year. He is an Oregon Democrat and currently the most senior member of his party on the panel.

Wyden looks to use the subpoena powers of the committee, the source informed on the condition of anonymity. The decisions made by JPMorgan’s asset and wealth management division CEO Mary Callahan Erdoes with respect to Epstein is in question, the source said. The bank earlier said it did not assist him in committing crimes and regrets any association with the offender.

Erdoes informed in a deposition in 2023 that she was aware in 2006 that Epstein was accused of paying cash to get underage girls brought to his home. The sex offender was bank's client since 1998. He became a registered sex offender in 2008 when he pleaded guilty to a criminal charge of procuring an underage girl for prostitution in Florida. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said Erdoes could have cut off Epstein as a client but she didn't until 2013 in his own deposition later in 2023.


JPMorgan “was a full-service bank for Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking”, a lawyer for the U.S. Virgin Islands informed a federal judge in New York in 2023. The bank waited till he killed himself to inform the Treasury Department of $1 billion in suspicious transactions linked to the trafficking by Epstein, the lawyer added.

Former investment banking chief Jes Staley has been accused by the bank of failing to report criminal activity related to Epstein. He seems to have also had a close relationship with him. Staley has rubbished all such claims and denied any knowledge of such crimes. He left JPMorgan in 2013. He became Barclays CEO later and also resigned from the position in 2021. House Oversight Chair James Comer said that Staley encouraged JPMorgan to keep Epstein as a client after a closed-door interview with the former executive in July.