At the end of December, U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General Denise George filed a lawsuit against JPMorgan over the bank’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. She was terminated days later. The news of George’s dismissal had stirred up speculation—and conspiracy theories—that this legal action led the territory’s governor to fire her.
But on Tuesday, the government filed an amended complaint that unveiled more accusations and went as far as suggesting former JPMorgan executive Jes Staley might have been an operative of Epstein’s sex ring. The document also highlighted some of Epstein’s seemingly shady payments, including to billionaire Victoria’s Secret founder Les Wexner.
“Between 2008 and 2012, Staley exchanged approximately 1,200 emails with Epstein from his JP Morgan email account,” states a newly-unredacted portion of the filing. “These communications show a close personal relationship and ‘profound’ friendship between the two men and even suggest that Staley may have been involved in Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation. They also reveal that Staley corresponded with Epstein while Epstein was incarcerated and visited Epstein’s Virgin Islands residence on multiple occasions.”
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In other unredacted sections, the lawsuit alleges that JPMorgan “serviced approximately fifty-five Epstein-related accounts collectively worth hundreds of millions of dollars” and that the bank “allowed Staley to remain a decisionmaker on Epstein’s accounts” and “even tasked Staley to discuss the human trafficking allegations with Epstein.”
In 2021, the Financial Times reported that U.S. financial regulators had examined Epstein and Staley’s emails, some of which included the cryptic words “snow white.” At the time, a lawyer for Staley told the press, “We wish to make it expressly clear that our client had no involvement in any of the alleged crimes committed by Mr. Epstein, and code words were never used by Mr. Staley in any communications with Mr. Epstein, ever.”
According to the filing, JPMorgan “ignored obvious red flags relating to Epstein’s accounts” which included payouts to “numerous women with Eastern European surnames who were publicly and internally identified as Epstein recruiters and/or victims.” The lawsuit alleges that “Epstein paid more than $600,0000 to Jane Doe 1, a woman who—according to news reports contained in JP Morgan’s due diligence reports—Epstein purchased at the age of 14.”
In the lawsuit, Epstein and his inner circle also are accused of withdrawing large sums of cash and making 95 foreign remittances with no known payee.
The complaint says that Hyperion Air, Inc.—the company that owned Epstein’s private jet—issued over $547,000 in checks payable to cash which were supposedly for fuel expenses when traveling abroad. Hyperion Air also converted more than $120,000 into foreign currency in 2012 and 2013. “Many of these cash withdrawals either exceeded the $10,000 reporting threshold or were seemingly structured to avoid triggering the reporting requirement,” the lawsuit continues. “This is particularly significant since it is well known that Epstein paid his victims in cash.”
Epstein and his associates also “appeared to be misusing JP Morgan accounts” for his purported nonprofit organizations including the C.O.U.Q. Foundation and Enhanced Education, the complaint says; C.O.U.Q. paid more than $29,000 to two known victims as well as a third woman, and more than $20,000 to a company called Phoenix Realty Home Inc.
The complaint says Epstein or one of his representatives used the Enhanced Education fund to pay Wexner $124,232 and send $15,000 to a firm “owned by Epstein’s reportedly prior girlfriend.” The name of the company, however, is redacted.
Meanwhile, the filing names one of the “ultrawealthy clients” Epstein brought to JPMorgan: billionaire Glenn Dubin, whose Highbridge Capital Management would later be acquired by the bank. (Virginia Roberts Giuffre, a victim of Epstein, has alleged Dubin sexually abused her, accusations the hedge funder adamantly denies.)
In 2011, the complaint adds, Staley and Epstein discussed launching “a ‘very HIGH profile’ donor advised fund,” or a type of investment account for charitable organizations. The filing says those nonprofits were helmed by an entity whose name is redacted. “Epstein pitched the DAF as an ‘exclusive club’ with a minimum $100 million donation where JP Morgan would act as the fiduciary,” the filing says.
It’s unclear for whom Epstein and Staley pitched such a fund. But in 2019, The New York Times revealed that Epstein held discussions with JPMorgan and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation about creating a multibillion-dollar charitable fund—one that would have yielded a massive payday for the pervy financier in the form of fees.
As part of those conversations in 2011 and 2012, Gates and his foundation employees visited Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse on several occasions, the Times reported.
The Daily Beast has previously reported on the ties between Gates and Epstein, revealing that their multiple meetings over the years went beyond financial talks. In 2021, insiders said Epstein gave the Microsoft billionaire advice on ending his marriage and in turn, Gates motivated Epstein to rehabilitate his image in light of his 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor in Florida.
A former Gates Foundation staffer also told us that the tech mogul hoped Epstein could help him land the Nobel Peace Prize. “I think he was ultimately disappointed it didn’t work out,” the person said.
