Jeffrey Epstein and ex-JPMorgan senior executive Jes Staley (Photo of Epstein via DOJ; Staley via Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
A little more than two months after Jeffrey Epstein’s death, JPMorgan Chase Bank secretly attached an internal accounting of the late sex offender’s “close relationship” with their former senior executive.
Titled “Project Jeep Current Review,” the document contained an extensively bullet-pointed summary of Epstein’s relationship with Jes Staley, who led JPMorgan’s private and investment banking divisions. Staley later became the CEO of Barclays Bank, and he is a key figure in two lawsuits accusing JPMorgan of knowingly profiting from Epstein’s sex trafficking. One, a class action filed by Epstein survivors, recently announced into a $290 million settlement. The other, filed by the U.S. Virgin Islands, remains active.
The review, revealed in redacted Virgin Islands filings released on Tuesday, leads off with messages between Epstein and Staley, while Epstein was still incarcerated on his 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution of a minor.
“I miss you,” Staley told Epstein on July 10, 2008. “The world is in a tough place. Hang in there.”
‘The appearance of inappropriate behavior’
Having pleaded guilty a month earlier in June, Epstein had just begun an 18-month sentence in a county prison in Florida at the time that email was dated. Their communications throughout Epstein’s term would prove to be an enduring embarrassment for two major banks. After losing his job at Barclays, Staley would be sued by JPMorgan, which claimed their former executive “concealed” his dealings with Epstein. Epstein survivors accused Staley of sexual abuse under the course of the litigation, but the former executive hasn’t been charged with any crime.
The 2019 JPMorgan review shows that the bank was well aware of the depths of their relationship years earlier.
“Jeffrey Epstein makes limited references to his interest in women but no explicit references to age,” JPMorgan’s review states. “There are also some comments which, while unconfirmed, may have the appearance of relating to inappropriate behavior with one reference between Epstein and Staley to a modeling agency.”
Under that subheading, the review flags an email Epstein sent to Staley showing “a young woman wearing a revealing outfit in a modeling pose.”
In their lawsuit, the Virgin Islands noted that Epstein sent payments to a woman with an Eastern European surname timed with Staley’s visit to London on Aug. 27, 2009. When Epstein asked Staley if he needed anything during his stay, Staley allegedly replied: “Yep.”
Some two days later, JPMorgan noted, Epstein used his account at the bank to send $3,000 to a Lithuanian woman from Baltic Ballet.
On June 16, 2010, Staley allegedly wrote to Epstein: “Is she free tonight?”
“Epstein replies ‘call me’ and Staley replies ‘I’m with A,’ which presumably may have been Prince Andrew,” the review states.
In a subheading of their review, JPMorgan noted: “Jeffrey Epstein appears to maintain a particularly close relationship with Prince Andrew the Duke of York and Lord Peter Mandelson, a senior member of the British Government. He also appears to have a close relationship with Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem who is a senior UAE official involved in ownership of the Dubai Ports.”
Prince Andrew stands with his arm around Virginia Giuffre’s waist, with Ghislaine Maxwell standing in the background. Giuffre included this photograph in her lawsuit against the British royal. (Screenshot from Giuffre’s lawsuit)
In early 2022, Andrew settled a lawsuit filed by noted Epstein survivor Virginia Giuffre, which accused the prince of sexually assaulting her when she was 17 years old.
‘Ignored the evidence of Epstein’s crimes’
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A spokesperson for the U.S. Virgin Islands attorney general noted that the communications connect Epstein to more JPMorgan executives than Staley.
“Jeffrey Epstein connected JPMorgan Chase’s executives with some of the world’s most high profile and wealthy individuals,” the spokesperson told Law&Crime. “The USVI’s complaint alleges that, in return for bringing valuable new clients into the bank, JPMorgan Chase, through its senior executives, including Mary Erdoes, ignored the evidence of Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes and traded victims’ public safety for its own profits.”
Several of the communications between Epstein and Erdoes — the CEO of the bank’s asset and wealth management division — appear to relate to Epstein’s attempts to cultivate a business relationship with billionaire Bill Gates, whose foundation had been teaming up with JPMorgan to create the Global Health Investment Fund.
As first reported by The New York Times, Epstein spent years trying to persuade JPMorgan and Gates to launch a separate charitable fund in return for a fraction of the percentage that could have earned him tens of millions of dollars. That separate initiative ultimately fizzled, but not without years of planning, meetings and coaxing from Epstein and the other participants.
Dated from 2011 through 2013, the newly released messages between Epstein, Staley and Erdoes show the deep access Epstein had to the bank’s top executives.
“I am looking forward to seeing a written proposal soon as there will be an internal gates meeting soon, and I would suggest we try to have an agreement if not finalized at least quite a way down the path before that meeting,” Epstein told Erdoes on Sept. 20, 2011.
Follow-up messages describe Epstein’s meeting with “Bill,” as well as the structure of the proposed entity being created. Epstein fired off ideas for the fund for years, routinely receiving replies from Staley and Erdoes on his proposals. At one point, Epstein’s aggressive needling prompted Staley to scold him to “stop pushing,” around Oct. 4, 2011.
But Epstein’s relationship with both senior executives remained warm for years.
On Jan. 20, 2012, Erdoes sent Epstein greetings for his 59th birthday.
“Not sure where you are celebrating it, but I hope you have a great birthday weekend,” her email said.
“Thanks,” Epstein replied. “Boris said you were terrific.”
Though the surname is not stated in the message, Gates’s aide Boris Nikolic was one of the people Epstein named as the executors of his will. Nikolic rejected the designation and expressed shock that Epstein called him to that task.
The Virgin Islands alleges that JPMorgan knew about Epstein’s involvement in sex trafficking for years and continued to court him as a customer anyway. A newly released email from the managing director for the bank’s Financial Intelligence Unit, Phillip DeLuca, helps make this argument explicitly.
On Jan. 10, 2011, before the flurry of communications with Erdoes regarding the fund, DeLuca wrote of Epstein in an email: “He is alleged to be involved in human trafficking of young girls and law enforcement is also allegedly investigating his involvement in this activity.” The same email describes Staley as Epstein’s “alleged personal associate” and states that the bank’s anti-money laundering division requested that JPMorgan “exit this relationship.”
JPMorgan continued to count Epstein as a customer until 2013.
Read the once-confidential JPMorgan review here.
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