Banking On Epstein
The sex trafficker couldn't have done it without America's biggest banks. Now Bank of America is paying off his victims.
This Week In Blunders March 22-28
“Money has no motherland. Financiers are without patriotism and without decency. Their sole object is gain.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
Who needs bitcoin when you can run your international crime network through Bank of America?
On Friday, the nation’s second-largest bank agreed to pay $72.5 million to settle victims’ claims that it helped enable Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation while denying it did any such thing.
Bank of America follows JPMorgan Chase, which agreed to pay $290 million to victims in 2023, and Deutsche Bank, which agreed to shell out $75 million that same year.
None of the banks admitted wrongdoing, because that’s the drill. Write the check. Deny the charges. Move on.
But all three banks did business with Epstein after his 2008 Florida conviction for crimes involving a minor. At that point, he wasn’t a mystery client. He was a registered sex offender with an online résumé.
Court filings and internal records show Epstein was flagged internally as a high-risk client. Employees referenced his sex offender status. Senior executives debated whether to keep him. Suspicious activity – including large cash movements and payments to women – was identified.
But the relationships sailed through compliance departments like superyachts to a private island.
As one complaint against Bank of America alleges:
