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A JPMorgan executive kept Jeffrey Epstein's account open for years despite his pedophilia conviction and suspicious activity, saying that she thought it was not her job to remove him as a client.
Mary Erdoes, who has worked for the bank since 1996, revealed during a nine-hour deposition that she allowed Epstein, who died in 2019, to stay on as a client, despite the bank becoming aware of his suspicious withdrawals as early as 2006.
In a 2011 email, Mary replied: 'Oh boy,' to another executive after learning Epstein had been affirmed a sex offender. The email had been at least the sixth time she became aware of Epstein's legal troubles and sex crimes, according to the Washington Post, who viewed the deposition.
Officials in the Virgin Islands, where Epstein owned a private island, have accused JPMorgan of 'knowingly facilitating, sustaining, and concealing' the sex pest's child trafficking by allowing him to stay on as a client, despite knowing about the abuse allegations.
The bank finally severed ties with Epstein in 2013, citing him routinely withdrawing large amounts of cash. A 2006 report showed Epstein had withdrawn amounts as large as $80,000 several times, amounting to more than $750,000 in one year.
'We all now understand that Epstein’s behavior was monstrous, and his victims deserve justice - but these suits are misplaced as we did not help him commit his heinous crimes,' a spokesperson for the bank said in response to the lawsuit, according to the Washington Post.
'We are committed to combating human trafficking, and we will continue to look for ways to invest in advancing this important mission.'
In addition, Mary said in the deposition that she didn't 'know what the proper process is when it’s an allegation' and believed it was up to the bank's legal team to remove Epstein.
'The process by which those things work is that legal risk, compliance, including supervisory management … have a natural process they go to when they have things like this that get alerted to them,' she said.
She said she didn't think it was her responsibility to flag Epstein's accounts for inquiry. Her supervisor, Jes Staley - who was friends with Epstein - had investigated allegations against him by asking the man himself, according to the Washington Post.
She said once Staley left the bank in 2013, she could close the account, because 'there was no one there to vouch for Mr. Epstein.'
Child trafficking was flagged to the bank in 2010 and 're-approval' was requested on his accounts in 2011, but his accounts stayed open for years afterward.
The bank denies any wrongdoing, but has sued Staley, accusing him of acting on his own to help Epstein. Staley, who moved to British bank Barclay in 2015 before resigning in 2021 after it looked into his relationship with Epstein, had a 'profound' friendship with the sex pest and reportedly gave him internal advice about his finances, according to the Post.
Staley said he had no 'decision-making authority over Epstein’s accounts' and 'is not alleged to have seen any of the suspicious account activity that other JPMorgan employees ignored.'
However, in a 2006 email with Staley and Mary about a Palm Beach Post article detailing Epstein's crimes, Staley told her he had 'went and saw him last night. I’ve never seen him so shaken. He adamantly denies the ages.'
In addition, Mary said more than 100 times that she couldn't recall what she did involving Epstein's account and only referred to Epstein's criminal acts as 'allegations,' despite him pleading guilty.
Although she was aware he was withdrawing large amounts of cash, she said that 'never at the time was that something that I was connecting in my mind with anything to do with any of the allegations of what he may or may not have done.'
She also said it was not her responsibility 'to do something with every piece of news media that comes out on our client base.'
After ties severed, Epstein took most of his wealth to Deutsche Bank. The bank recently paid $75million to settle a lawsuit similar to the one JPMorgan is dealing with now.
Epstein's account was one of the most profitable at JPMorgan in 2003, according to a diligence report. At the time, Epstein also managed an account for Victoria’s Secret CEO Leslie Wexner, who later disassociated with Epstein in 2008.
By 2008, Epstein had $121million housed at JPMorgan, according to the Washington Post.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12132321/JPMorgan-exec-met-Epstein-YEARS-pedophile-conviction.html