>>23565365
On an autumn day in 2011, Jeffrey Epstein stepped into JPMorgan Chase’s headquarters at 270 Park Avenue and rode the elevator to the executive floors where the bank’s leaders, including Chief Executive Jamie Dimon, kept their offices. Epstein, who had pleaded guilty to a sex crime in Florida three years earlier, had a message for the bank’s top lawyer, Stephen Cutler: he had “turned over a new leaf,” he said, and powerful friends could vouch for him. “Go talk to Bill Gates about me.”
Key takeaways:
Epstein was connected to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, not just former PM Ehud Barak
He wired 'hundreds of millions of dollars in payments to Russian banks and young Eastern European women'
Accounts for young women were opened without in-person verification (in one case a SSN could not be confirmed)
Jes Staley was constantly running interference for Epstein vs. JPM compliance concerns
At Jes Staley’s urging, compliance spoke with Epstein’s lawyer Ken Starr, who insisted "no crimes" had been committed.
Epstein had accounts at JPM for at least 134 (!) entities
JPMorgan funded/serviced pieces tied to Ghislaine Maxwell (millions, incl. $7.4M for a Sikorsky helicopter) and helped finance MC2, the modeling agency linked to Jean-Luc Brunel.
For more than a decade, JPMorgan Chase processed over $1 billion in transactions for Jeffrey Epstein - including hundreds of millions routed to Russian banks and payments to young Eastern European women, opened at least 134 accounts tied to him and his associates, and even helped move millions to Ghislaine Maxwell - including $7.4 million for a Sikorsky helicopter - while anti–money laundering staff repeatedly flagged large cash withdrawals and wire patterns aligned with known trafficking indicators, according to a new report from the NY Times following a six-year investigation that involved "some 13,000 pages" of legal and financial records. Funny how they sat on this until now - maybe it's related to this, but do read on.
Inside JPMorgan, the debate over whether to keep Epstein as a client had been simmering for years. Epstein was lucrative. His accounts held more than $200 million and generated millions in fees, and he opened doors to wealthy prospects and world leaders. He had helped midwife the bank’s 2004 purchase of Highbridge Capital Management, earning a $15 million payday. Senior bankers credited him with introductions to figures such as Sergey Brin and Benjamin Netanyahu.
Sure enough, just as more bank employees were losing patience with Epstein in 2011, he began dangling more goodies. That March, to the pleasant surprise of JPMorgan’s investment bankers in Israel, they were granted an audience with Netanyahu. The bankers informed Staley, who forwarded their email to Epstein with a one-word message: “Thanks.” (The bank spokesman said JPMorgan “neither needed nor sought Epstein’s help for meetings with any government leaders.”) And around that same time, Epstein presented an opportunity that, like the Highbridge deal years earlier, had the potential to be transformative.
This one involved Bill Gates, who had only recently entered Epstein’s orbit. In an apparent effort to ingratiate — and further entangle — himself with his bankers and the Microsoft co-founder, Epstein pitched Erdoes and Staley on creating an enormous investment and charitable fund with something like $100 billion in assets. -NY Times
Compliance leaders urged the bank to "exit" the felon after anti–money laundering personnel flagged a yearslong pattern of large cash withdrawals and constant wires that, in hindsight, matched known indicators of trafficking and other illicit conduct.; instead, top executives overrode objections at least four times, allowed accounts for young women to be opened with scant verification, and paid Epstein directly - the aforementioned $15 million tied to a hedge-fund deal and $9 million in a settlement. Even in 2011, as concerns mounted, internal notes referenced decisions "pending Dimon review," while Jes Staley, a senior executive and Epstein confidant, traded sexually suggestive messages (“Say hi to Snow White”) and shared confidential bank information with the client.
Exact dollar figures and destinations across years:
$1.7M in cash (2004–05) and earlier $175K cash (2003).
$7.4M wired to buy Maxwell’s Sikorsky helicopter.
$50M credit line approved in 2010 even post-plea; ~$212M then at the bank (about half his net worth).
$176M moved to Deutsche Bank after the 2013 exit.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/go-talk-bill-gates-about-me-how-jp-morgan-enabled-jeffrey-epsteins-crimes-snagged