JPMorgan Chase’s head of wealth and asset management, Mary Erdoes, features prominently in Sen. Ron Wyden’s (D-Ore.) calls for the bank to be investigated further for its ties to sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
In a memorandum released last week, Wyden highlighted recently unsealed court documents showing communications between Epstein and top JPMorgan Chase executives, including Erdoes, who has been the CEO of the firm’s asset and wealth management division since 2009.
Wyden argues the newly-released documents support claims that the firm “severely underreported” Epstein’s suspicious financial activity before his arrest and death in 2019.
Particularly, Wyden noted that the bank flagged slightly more than $4.3 million in suspicious transactions when Epstein was alive and trafficking victims, but retroactively filed reports of $1.3 billion in suspicious transactions dating back to 2003.
In a statement, Wyden said it is “clear” that the bank should face a criminal investigation.
“Bank executives tuned out compliance officers who were alarmed by Epstein’s transactions, seemingly withheld evidence of potential money laundering, and coached Epstein on how to obscure suspiciously large cash withdrawals,” Wyden said. “This goes beyond a total compliance breakdown, and it’s impossible to believe the decisions that led to this disaster never reached the very top of the executive suite.”
In a response about Wyden’s inquiry, JPMorgan spokesperson Trish Wexler said the firm’s involvement with Epstein was “largely a matter of public record, with millions of pages of discovery from litigation already publicly available,” including recent court-released documents showing suspicious activity reports filed in 2002.
Epstein was one of the country’s preeminent financiers, with contacts to business executives, presidents (including Bill Clinton and Donald Trump) and British royalty. He was arrested, pleaded guilty and was convicted in 2008 in a Florida court. He served about 13 months before being arrested again in 2019 and accused of sex trafficking underage women, but died in his prison cell in August of that year.
His case (and death) has garnered significant publicity and controversy, eventually resulting in congressional approval earlier this month for the Justice Department to release its file on Epstein’s case.
According to Wyden’s analysis of court documents, Epstein was one of JPMorgan Chase’s largest individual clients and one of several UHNW clients included in the bank’s so-called “wall of cash.” Numerous executives, including Erdoes, allegedly oversaw Epstein’s accounts and continued to do business with him as an intermediary even after the bank ended its direct relationship with him in 2013 due to concerns about money laundering.
Wyden claims that Erdoes was “in constant contact” with Epstein.
According to the analysis, in 2006, Erdoes wrote she would help broker a meeting between a JPMorgan UHNW client and Epstein, and Epstein and Erdoes allegedly discussed “numerous business initiatives” in emails between 2010 and 2011 (Epstein had already been arrested and charged in 2008 with procuring an underage prostitute).
Erodes was also involved in Epstein’s attempts to act as an intermediary between the bank and Leon Black, the former CEO of Apollo Global Management, who resigned due to his ties to Epstein.
Additionally, Wyden called the bank’s claims that it ended its Epstein relationship in 2013 “demonstrably false.” According to Wyden’s analysis, in August of that year, Erdoes and other executives approved bank employees to continue working with Epstein on matters related to Black.
“This behavior indicates (JPMorgan Chase) may have waited until after Epstein’s arrest in 2019 before fully reporting (suspicious activity reports) on Epstein because the bank wanted to keep using Epstein as a source of referrals for ultra-wealthy clients,” the memorandum read.
According to Wexler, the U.S. government had information about Epstein that they hadn’t shared with banks for years, and that once they did, the bank “identified for law enforcement a range of Epstein’s past transactions intended to assist with the investigation.”
On Aug. 14, 2013, former Private Bank CEO John Duffy informed Erdoes that Epstein would remain Black’s “primary advisor,” and that Duffy told Epstein the bank would continue to work with him “as long as it was through the client accounts,” with Epstein’s entities not being acceptable. After asking if that was correct, Erdoes replied, “Y.”
According to Wexler, Erodes cut off Epstein as a client six years before he was arrested on sex trafficking charges.
“Mary has always held herself and her colleagues to the highest standards of integrity and trust, leading the Asset and Wealth Management business by example,” Wexler said. “Her competence and character are top-notch, and she is consistently recognized as one of the top executives in financial services.”
While Wyden lauded the bill to release the Justice Department’s file on Epstein, he worried that Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi were “faking investigations” to block further disclosures, and called for the U.S. Treasury Department to release its own Epstein file that didn’t fall under Congress’ disclosure legislation.
“I plan to seek approval of my bill to force the Treasury Department to release its Epstein file in the coming weeks because we need to continue following the money,” Wyden said.
