We are shown time and time again that banks are cruel institutions that only care about money. Any kind of money is good money for them, even if it comes from a sex trafficker. At least that’s what JPMorgan Chase is telling us.
Closing One Eye on Sex Trafficking
Democrat Senator Ron Wyden from Oregon, who serves as Senate Finance Committee Chair, shared a report last week that shines a new light on the relationship between sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and JPMorgan Chase. It calls for an investigation into the bank’s failure to report more than $1 billion in suspicious transactions.
From 2002 to 2016, JPMorgan Chase identified $4.3 million worth of transactions by Epstein. It then waited until his arrest and death in 2019 to flag more than $1 billion in transactions that are potentially suspicious. According to the report shared by Wyden, newly unsealed emails show that the bank’s top executives wanted “to continue working with Epstein” despite parting ways with him as a client. They apparently counted on Epstein’s connections to attract other wealthy clients.
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JPMorgan Chase’s Love Affair with Epstein
JPMorgan Chase’s love affair with Epstein is well documented. He was a client of the bank for 15 years, from 1998 to 2013. During that time, he became one of their most important clients. Epstein not only had hundreds of millions of dollars in his accounts, but also helped bring in other super-rich individuals into the fold. The New York Times’ report from earlier this year mentions Google co-founder Sergey Brin and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But that was just the beginning.
JPMorgan Chase helped Epstein send money to questionable locations all over the world with no issues. It set up accounts for women that later turned out to be his victims. Also, he was free to withdraw large amounts of money in cash without having to answer any questions. To make it even more baffling, it kept him as a client even after he became a convicted sex offender in 2008.
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It’s All About the Money
JPMorgan Chase had the front seats for Epstein’s crimes and decided to continue watching instead of raising any alarms. Because for them, the money that Epstein had, the money he could bring in, was more important than all the morals, decency, and lives he would go on to destroy.
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