JP Morgan warned the US government about more than $1bn in transactions linked to Jeffrey Epstein that were possibly related to reports of human trafficking, new documents confirm.
The largest bank in the US filed a suspicious activity report (SAR) in 2019, just weeks after Epstein was found dead in a New York jail cell, about transactions linked to the paedophile financier and prominent business figures. It also flagged wire transfers made by Epstein to Russian banks.
JP Morgan’s report said it had flagged about 4,700 transactions, totalling more than $1bn, that were potentially related to reports of human trafficking involving Epstein, the New York Times reported. The report, filed during the last Trump administration, also flagged sensitivities around Epstein’s “relationships with two U.S. presidents”.
The report was included in a release of previously sealed court records that were made public on Thursday after requests from the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. The documents included other SARs that JPMorgan filed in the years before Epstein’s 2019 arrest about large cash withdrawals, the New York Times reported.
The 2019 report did not detail the nature of the transactions or why they were suspicious. But it identified transactions with Leon Black, the co-founder of the private equity firm Apollo Global Management who left the company in 2021; the hedge fund manager Glenn Dubin; the lawyer Alan Dershowitz; and trusts controlled by the retail tycoon Leslie Wexner.
The report identified $65m of wire transfers from the mid-2000s that appeared to move between multiple banks linked to Wexner’s trusts but it did not provide details about the transactions involving Black, Dubin or Dershowitz.
None of the individuals named in the report have been charged with crimes in relation to Epstein.
JP Morgan’s 15-year relationship with Epstein, a convicted sex offender, has become a source of major legal and political scrutiny.
The unsealed documents were part of a 2023 litigation filed by the US Virgin Islands, where Epstein owned a private island and conducted most of his financial affairs, and on behalf of his victims. JP Morgan settled the cases without admitting liability.
Patricia Wexler, a spokesperson for JPMorgan, said the release of the SARs showed that the bank had alerted regulators about Epstein.
She said: “The SARs do confirm what’s been inferred all along: the bank filed SARs about Epstein early on, and specifically when it exited Epstein from the bank in 2013 – and repeatedly between 2013 and 2019, as required.
“It does not appear that anyone in the government or law enforcement acted on those SARs for years.”
Devon Spurgeon, a spokesperson for Dubin, said the transactions in question were unrelated to Epstein’s crimes, and Dershowitz, who was one of Epstein’s lawyers, said the only funds he received from Epstein were payments for legal services, according to the New York Times.
A representative for Black did not want to comment. The Guardian has also contacted Wexner.
