JPMorgan Chase maintained Jeffrey Epstein as a banking client from approximately 1998 through 2013 — including the years after his 2008 sex offender conviction. The relationship was profitable for the bank and the eventual legal reckoning cost JPMorgan $290 million.
The financial relationship:
Epstein maintained accounts at JPMorgan that generated substantial fee income for the bank. The accounts processed large cash transactions — in some cases hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash withdrawals — that internal compliance staff flagged as suspicious but senior bankers protected.
Internal JPMorgan communications revealed in litigation showed that compliance officers raised red flags about Epstein’s accounts as early as 2006 — and again following his 2008 conviction. Senior relationship managers, including in one documented instance the influence of executive Jes Staley, kept the relationship active.
The fee income:
Court filings in the USVI AG’s lawsuit against JPMorgan estimated that the bank earned tens of millions of dollars in fee income from Epstein’s accounts over the years of the relationship.
Jes Staley’s role:
Jes Staley was a senior JPMorgan executive who had a documented personal relationship with Epstein. He visited Epstein’s properties and appears to have used his influence to maintain the banking relationship. Staley later became CEO of Barclays and was eventually forced to step down by British regulators over different but related matters concerning his relationship with Epstein.
The settlement:
In 2023, JPMorgan agreed to pay $290 million to victims who were trafficked — settling a class action that argued the bank’s continuation of the relationship directly enabled the trafficking to continue. JPMorgan also filed its own lawsuit against Jes Staley seeking to hold him personally accountable for the losses.
What the settlement acknowledged:
Without admitting wrongdoing in a formal criminal sense, JPMorgan’s settlement acknowledged its failure to act on clear warning signals about Epstein’s activity.