October 20,2025

With JPMorgan Chase Dodging Epstein Inquiry, Wyden Investigation Drills Down On Bank Executives’ Unexplained Conduct

JPMC’s Initial Response to Wyden Inquiry Brushed Off Key Questions, Failed to Provide Any Exculpatory Evidence to Counter Reports that Multiple Executives Enabled Epstein’s Crimes by Retaining Him As a Client and Paying Him Millions of Dollars

Washington, D.C. – Responding to an evasive letter from JPMorgan Chase regarding the bank’s relationship with its former client Jeffrey Epstein, Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) refused the bank’s attempt to pin blame for its mistakes on a single former employee and restated more than two dozen questions pertaining to bank documents, internal Epstein reviews, and actions taken by several current and former executives.

“...The bank’s letter appeared to claim that just one employee is responsible for all of JPMC’s failures that enabled Epstein’s sex trafficking activities for decades. It is not credible to suggest that one employee, no matter how senior, could be responsible for a compliance disaster of this scale,” Senator Wyden wrote to Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon. “The timeline laid out in public reporting indicates that [Mary Erdoes, the head of JPMC’s private bank for the ultra-wealthy] and other JPMC leadership refused to act on Epstein until extreme accumulation of pressure forced them to do so. When JPMC finally ended its relationship with Epstein in 2013, the bank acted based on the understanding that he posed an unacceptable risk of money laundering and human trafficking. These concerns that should have motivated the bank to immediately flag his suspicious transactions to federal regulators, as required by law. JPMC failed to file suspicious activity reports with the U.S. Treasury Department for another six years … In my view, the six-year delay between when JPMC terminated Epstein as a client in 2013 and when JPMC first reported Epstein to federal regulators in 2019 warrants a federal criminal investigation.”

Senator Wyden, three years into his investigation of the financing of Epstein’s sex trafficking network, first opened this line of inquiry related to JPMorgan Chase in September.

The bank’s response to his inquiry claimed that with the exception of former executive Jes Staley, the bank’s executives “acted with integrity.” The response, however, failed to provide any evidence countering recent public reporting indicating that multiple top executives directly overruled internal warnings related to Epstein’s suspicious transactions to keep him as a client. The bank’s response, again without any supporting evidence, brushed off examples of multiple emails that contradicted Dimon’s sworn testimony that he didn’t know anything about Epstein until 2019. Finally, the bank provided no explanation as to why it waited six years after it fired Epstein as a client to file Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) on his transactions that appeared to be related to sex trafficking. Banks are required by law to file those reports in a timely manner in order to assist with law enforcement, but JPMorgan Chase’s filing only came after Epstein was arrested in 2019.

Senator Wyden’s new letter to JPMorgan Chase, available in full here, asked the following questions:

  1. Please provide all emails or other documents or communications between JPMC employees related to Jeffrey Epstein’s accounts that include the phrases “for Jamie,” “pending Dimon review” or other similar references to you.

  2. Please provide copies of any internal JPMC emails, memoranda, reports or other documents that include the following phrase: “the decision was made to keep Mr. Epstein as a PB client.”

  3. It has been reported that following Epstein’s second arrest in 2019, JPMC conducted an internal review of its relationship with Epstein titled “Project Jeep.” Please provide a copy of all memoranda produced in connection with “Project Jeep” and all materials provided to JPMC’s Board of Directors related to the “Project Jeep” review.

  4. Please provide all documents related to communications between Mary Erdoes and Jes Staley related to Jeffrey Epstein.

  5. Please provide all documents related to communications between Mary Erdoes and Justin Nelson related to Jeffrey Epstein.

  6. Please provide all documents related to communications between Jes Staley and Jamie Dimon related to Jeffrey Epstein.

  7. It has been reported that following Epstein’s arrest in July 2006 for soliciting prostitution from a teenage girl, JPMC reviewed its relationship with Epstein but opted to keep him as a client with the condition that JPMC would not proactively solicit new investment business from him. Is this characterization accurate?

  8. It has been reported that in the fall of 2011, Stephen Cutler had two meetings with Epstein at JPMC’s headquarters. Is this reporting accurate? Please provide the dates of these meetings, and any other meetings between Cutler and Epstein, and describe what was discussed at those meetings.

  9. Please provide all documents related to communications between Stephen Cutler and any of the following JPMC employees related to Jeffrey Epstein: Jamie Dimon, Mary Erdoes, Jes Staley and Justin Nelson.

  10. Please provide all documents related to communications between JPMC personnel related to Jeffrey Epstein containing the phrases “Sugar daddy” or “he should not be a client.”

  11. It has been reported that the JPMC head of compliance, William Langford, urged the bank to activate a “rapid response” team to determine whether Epstein’s accounts should be “exited.” Please provide all documents related to any such “rapid response” team activated in 2010 and/or 2011 regarding Epstein’s accounts.

  12. Have any JPMC employees ever been terminated due to their handling of Jeffrey Epstein’s accounts at JPMC? If so, please identify which JPMC employees were terminated for their role in the handling of Epstein’s accounts.

  13. Has there ever been an internal investigation by JPMC into Mary Erdoes for her supervision of Epstein’s accounts at JPMC? If yes, please provide the results of that investigation.
  14. Has there ever been an internal investigation by JPMC into Justin Nelson for his management of Jeffrey Epstein’s accounts at JPMC? If yes, please provide the results of that investigation.
  15. Sometime around July 2013, a JPMC employee prepared talking points for Mary Erdoes ahead of a meeting with Jeffrey Epstein. Please provide all documents related to those talking points.
  16. Please provide all documents related to any internal reviews conducted by JPMC’s private banking division around 2013 that led to marking Epstein’s accounts for elimination as a JPMC client.
  17. Please provide all documents related to memos prepared in 2013 by JPMC executive Justin Nelson related to Jeffrey Epstein.
  18. Please provide a list of all transactions JPMC processed for Epstein’s accounts using foreign correspondent bank accounts at the following Russian banks: Sberbank, Alfa Bank and FCB.

  19. Did JPMC ever conduct an internal review of the timeliness of filings made with federal authorities related to Epstein’s accounts? If so, what were the findings of that review?
  20. In 2013 when JPMC made the decision to terminate Jeffrey Epstein as a client, did any JPMC employees discuss whether suspicious transactions involving Epstein’s accounts, including large cash withdrawals, should be reported to the U.S. Treasury Department?
  21. After JPMC terminated Epstein as a client in 2013, reportedly related to internal concerns of suspicious financial activity and sexual abuse, why did JPMC not file any suspicious activity reports on Epstein with the U.S. Treasury Department?
  22. Why did JPMC wait six years after terminating Epstein as a client to file suspicious activity reports with the U.S. Treasury Department on Jeffrey Epstein’s accounts? Please also provide copies of any SARs JPMC filed on Epstein’s accounts prior to 2019.

  23. Public reports indicate that in 2004 and 2005, Epstein made more than $1.7 million in cash withdrawals from JPMC accounts. Between 2005 and 2007, did JPMC file any SARs in relation to those transactions? If yes, please provide the date of each SAR and the dollar value of the transactions flagged in the SARs.
  24. Please provide copies of all records JPMC filed with the U.S. Treasury Department in relation to Jeffrey Epstein’s accounts. These accounts should include, but not be limited to, any account opened by the following individuals and entities:
    1. Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, Darren K. Indyke, Richard D. Kahn, Harry Beller, Erika Kellerhals, Southern Trust Company, Inc., Southern Financial LLC, Haze Trust, Environmental Solutions Worldwide, Inc., The 1953 Trust, Plan D, LLC, Great St. Jim, LLC, Nautilus, Inc., Hyperion Air, LLC, Poplar, Inc., J Epstein Virgin Islands Foundation Inc., Gratitude America Ltd., or Butterfly Trust.

  25. Please provide a list of all cash withdrawals in excess of $10,000 made from Epstein’s accounts at JPMC between 2001 and 2019, including the stated purpose of each of these transactions.

The letter text from Senator Wyden is available here.

The letter text from JPMC is available here.

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