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A U.S. Virgin Islands Complaint Claims That JPMorgan Supported Epstein’s Illegal Activities

In a lawsuit launched this week, the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands claims that JPMorgan Chase “turned a blind eye” to evidence suggesting that disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein used the institution to support sex-trafficking operations on Little St. James, a private island he owned in the territory until his suicide in 2019.

Denise George, the attorney general for the U.S. Virgin Islands, filed a more than 100-page complaint in the Southern District of New York in Manhattan on Tuesday alleging that JPMorgan failed to report Epstein’s suspicious activities and gave the financier access to services meant for high-net-worth clients following his 2008 conviction for enticing a minor to engage in prostitution in Palm Beach, Florida.

According to the complaint, the investigation conducted by the territory’s Department of Justice “unveiled that JP Morgan deliberately, mistakenly, and illegally offered and dragged the controls through which hiring managers and individuals were paid and was crucial to the execution and hiding of the Epstein trafficking enterprise.”

It said that the bank ignored the proof for “more than a generation,” because of Epstein’s personal economic footprints, and due to the transactions and customers that Epstein delivered and vowed to bring to the bank.”

It added that top JP Morgan management had “advocated and approved” these choices.

The complaint, which contained several pages that were removed in whole or in part, claimed that the bank “facilitated and hidden wire and money transactions that brought up doubt of — and were, in reality, part of — an illegal scheme whose currency was the sex slavery of numerous of women and girls in and beyond the Virgin Islands.”

Human trafficking, according to the statement, “was the primary operation of the accounts Epstein kept at JP Morgan.”

JPMorgan Chase declined to comment when NPR contacted the company.

The legal action on Tuesday was filed only a few weeks after the U.S. Virgin Islands announced a $105 million settlement with Epstein’s estate, which included recouping “more than $80 million in revenue-generating tax benefits that Epstein and his fellow defendants obtained through fraud to fuel his criminal enterprise,” according to a statement from the attorney general’s office on December 1.

The settlement also stipulates that the territory would get half of the money made from the sale of Little St. James island, “on which Epstein dwelt and on which many of his unlawful activities occurred.”

Police in Palm Beach launched an investigation when a family complained that Epstein had sexually assaulted her 14-year-old daughter in 2005, and the probe resulted in a guilty plea three years later. In accordance with the conditions of the agreement with the state of Florida, Epstein completed a 13-month work-release program, was required to compensate the victims, and had to register as a sex offender.

2019 saw Epstein’s second arrest on related charges in New York, but he committed suicide in a federal jail while awaiting trial.

In spite of being aware of Epstein’s criminal background, Deutsche Bank was under investigation in 2020 by New York state officials for failing to disclose unusual transactions in Epstein’s account. Later on, the bank consented to pay a $150 million fine.

The article was initially posted on – npr(Epstein’s sex trafficking was aided by JPMorgan, a Virgin Islands lawsuit says : NPR)