New Wyden Bill Would Force Treasury to Turn Over Epstein Files
Secretary Bessent Has Repeatedly Refused to Give Epstein Bank Records to Senate Investigators, Impeding Senator Wyden’s Follow-The-Money Investigation
Washington, D.C. – Following new revelations about Jeffrey Epstein’s deep and long-running relationship with J.P Morgan, Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., today introduced the Produce Epstein Treasury Records Act (PETRA) to compel Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to turn over Epstein-related Treasury records to Senate investigators. Finance Committee staff reviewed a large portion of those files in person at the Treasury Department in 2024. Senator Wyden has sought to obtain the complete set for further investigation, but Bessent has repeatedly refused to produce them to the committee and downplayed their significance. The files detail Epstein transactions totaling at least $1.5 billion dollars, and they include the names of women and girls he may have trafficked, as well as the identities of individuals whose involvement with Epstein may put them at risk of blackmail or other foreign corruption. They also reveal potential violations of federal anti-money laundering laws by J.P. Morgan and other banks--compliance failures that helped Epstein continue abusing and trafficking women and girls many years after law enforcement was first alerted to his activities.
“The basic question here is whether a bunch of rich pedophiles and Epstein accomplices are going to face any consequences for their crimes, and Scott Bessent is doing his best to make sure they won’t. My head just about exploded when I heard Bessent say it wasn’t his department’s job to investigate these Epstein bank records, because it’s simply impossible that somebody with his background in finance is unaware of FinCEN or any of the other investigative offices within the Treasury,” Senator Wyden said. “From the beginning, my view has been that following the money is the key to identifying Epstein’s clients as well as the henchmen and banks that enabled his sex trafficking network. It’s past time for Bessent to quit running interference for pedophiles and give us the Epstein files he’s sitting on.”
The Produce Epstein Treasury Records Act, which Senator Wyden plans to file as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, mandates the following:
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Within 30 days of enactment of PETRA, the Secretary of the Treasury must produce to Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Finance, and the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Banking Committee, physical copies of all suspicious activity reports related to Jeffrey Epstein (hereafter, the Epstein SARs). The Epstein SARs must include all SARs related to Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators (whether indicted or unindicted) and any and all individuals and entities who transacted with Jeffrey Epstein or entities he owned or controlled, whether directly or through Epstein’s representatives.
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Within 30 days of enactment, the Secretary of the Treasury must also produce a report with a list of all financial institutions that filed the Epstein SARs, a list of all individuals and entities flagged by the SARs, and the total dollar value of the Epstein SARs (organized by financial institution).
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Within 60 days of enactment, the Secretary of the Treasury must also produce a report detailing all investigations conducted by any components of the Treasury Department, including the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), into any violations of the Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”) or any other federal law by financial institutions regarding the handling of any accounts identified in the Epstein SARs.
The legislative text of the bill, available here, seeks “all suspicious activity reports relating to Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators (whether indicted or unindicted) and any third party individual or entity that transacted with Jeffrey Epstein” including but not limited to the following:
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Jeffrey Epstein
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Ghislaine Maxwell
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Darren K. Indyke
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Richard D. Kahn
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Harry Beller
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Erika Kellerhals
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Southern Trust Company, Inc.
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Southern Financial LLC
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Haze Trust
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Environmental Solutions Worldwide, Inc.
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The 1953 Trust
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Plan D, LLC
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Great St. Jim, LLC
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Nautilus, Inc.
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Hyperion Air, LLC
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Poplar, Inc.
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J Epstein Virgin Islands Foundation Inc.
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Gratitude America Ltd.
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Butterfly Trust
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La Hougue
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Scott Borgerson
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Malcolm Grumbridge
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J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, N.A. (and any subsidiary thereof)
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Deutsche Bank (and any subsidiary thereof)
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Bank of America (and any subsidiary thereof)
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Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (and any subsidiary thereof)
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UBS Financial Services
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Wells Fargo
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Alfa Bank
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Sberbank
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Jes Staley
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Leon D. Black
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Debra R. Black
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Black Family Partners, LP
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Elysium Trust
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Elysium Management, LLC
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J Black Trust
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Melanie Spinella
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BV70, LLC
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Les Wexner
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Bella Wexner
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Abigail Wexner
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The Wexner Foundation
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Arts Interests
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Health and Science Interests
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The Wexner Children’s Trust II
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International Charitable Interests
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L Brands (formerly Limited Brands)
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Alan Dershowitz
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Glenn Dubin
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Christie’s
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Sotheby’s
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HB Multi-Strategy Holdings, Ltd.
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Highbridge Capital Corporation
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AP Narrows Holding AP
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LDB 2011 LLC
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Elizabeth Johnson
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Johnson & Johnson
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Barclays
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Peter Thiel
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Valar Ventures
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Karyna Shuliak
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Appleby law firm
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Standard Chartered
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HSBC
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Julius Baer
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BNP Paribas
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Citibank
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Sarah Kellen
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Nadia Marcinko (also known as Nada Marcinkova)
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MC2, modeling agency
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Jean-Luc Brunel
Senator Wyden’s Epstein investigation began in 2022 with an inquiry into the sex trafficker’s financial relationship with multi-billionaire Leon Black, the co-founder of Apollo Global Management. In 2024, following a request from Finance Committee Democratic staff for access to Treasury’s Epstein files, the Biden administration allowed committee investigators to review more than a thousand pages of documents in person at the Treasury Department. Later that year Senator Wyden requested the Treasury produce the Epstein file for the committee to investigate further. He made the same request early in the Trump administration, which came into office promising a greater level of transparency on Epstein matters. He also obtained Leon Black’s settlement with the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands and released new information pertaining to Black’s payment of $170 million to Epstein over several years, ostensibly for tax and estate planning services. In June Senator Wyden again sought the Epstein files and laid out a blueprint for a proper follow-the-money investigation given the Trump administration’s refusal to act, and the following month he revealed that Epstein’s huge transactions and tax planning work may never have been investigated or audited by the IRS. In a letter to the Treasury Secretary sent earlier this month, Senator Wyden identified several individuals with documented Epstein ties and again demanded the Epstein files.
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