JPMorgan Chase Hit with Lawsuit for Facilitating Jeffrey Epstein’s Crime Network; Similar Charges Were Brought Against It for Facilitating Madoff’s Ponzi Scheme
By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: January 9, 2023 ~
Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO, JPMorgan Chase
Making headlines around the world last week was the news that the Attorney General of the U.S. Virgin Islands, Denise George, was fired just days after she filed a federal lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase, charging it with facilitating the sex trafficking of children by Jeffrey Epstein. George was fired by the Governor of the Virgin Islands, Albert Bryan Jr.
Unfortunately, those headlines and the mainstream news articles that accompanied them, fail to capture the worst parts of this story, which includes the following: the 30-page lawsuit filed by Attorney General George on December 27 in the Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York includes a “Sealed Document Placed in Vault” according to the Docket Sheet in the case; after the paragraph headlined as “JP Morgan Ignored Obvious Red Flags Relating to Epstein’s Accounts,” large segments of the lawsuit have been redacted with black lines covering full paragraphs; pages 15 through 22 of the lawsuit are completely white, with no black line redactions and no text; the case has been assigned to Judge Jed Rakoff, who lately seems to be the only Judge in that large courthouse that is allowed to oversee sensitive matters pertaining to JPMorgan Chase – the largest bank in the U.S. which has a rap sheet that reads like the Gambino crime family and which has racked up five criminal felony counts – to which it pleaded guilty. (See Judge Rakoff Signs a Dangerous Protective Order in Whistleblower Case Against 5-Count Felon JPMorgan Chase.)
In November, two Jane Doe cases were filed individually against JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank for facilitating Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking. Those cases were also assigned to Judge Jed Rakoff and have now been consolidated with the Virgin Islands case. The lead attorney in both Jane Doe cases is the prominent attorney, David Boies, of law firm Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP.
And, finally, the charges being leveled by the now sacked Attorney General of the Virgin Islands involving JPMorgan Chase facilitating the sex crimes of Jeffrey Epstein have a distinctly familiar ring to the charges brought in 2014 by the U.S. Department of Justice against JPMorgan Chase for facilitating the massive Ponzi scheme of Bernie Madoff. Compare the similarities:
Virgin Islands Attorney General’s lawsuit filed December 27, 2022: “…JP Morgan knowingly facilitated, sustained, and concealed the human trafficking network operated by Jeffrey Epstein from his home and base in the Virgin Islands, and financially benefitted from this participation, directly or indirectly, by failing to comply with federal banking regulations. JP Morgan facilitated and concealed wire and cash transactions that raised suspicion of—and were in fact part of—a criminal enterprise whose currency was the sexual servitude of dozens of women and girls in and beyond the Virgin Islands. Human trafficking was the principal business of the accounts Epstein maintained at JP Morgan.”
U.S. Department of Justice Charges filed on January 7, 2014: “Since 1986, JPMorgan and its predecessor institutions served as the primary bank through which Madoff ran his Ponzi scheme. Madoff Securities maintained a series of linked checking and brokerage accounts at JPMorgan – collectively referred to as the ‘703 Account.’…Early on in its relationship with Madoff Securities, JPMorgan, because of its unique vantage point as the firm’s banker, had reason to be suspicious about Madoff. For example, in the early 1990s the Bank learned that Madoff and a prominent client of JPMorgan’s Private Bank (the ‘Private Bank Client’) were engaged in what looked like round-tripping, check-kiting transactions. Another bank involved in these transactions (‘Madoff Bank 2’) recognized them as suspicious and without any legitimate business purpose. In or about 1996, unlike JPMorgan, Madoff Bank 2 not only filed a suspicious activity report (SAR’) with law enforcement, but it actually closed down Madoff’s account. As a result, Madoff moved all of his accounts from Madoff Bank 2 to JPMorgan, where the size of these transactions became much larger. For example, in December 2001 alone, the Private Bank Client engaged in approximately $6.8 billion worth of transactions with Madoff through a series of circular $90 million transfers.”
Just like Madoff, Epstein held a multitude of accounts at JPMorgan Chase. Attorney General George wrote this in her lawsuit:
“This illicit association of Epstein, businesses, and his associates constitutes what is referred to herein as the ‘Epstein Enterprise.’ Specifically included in the Epstein Enterprise were the following companies and non-profit organizations, all of which had accounts with JP Morgan: 2013 Butterfly Trust, Coatue Enterprises, LLC, C.O.U.Q. Foundation, Enhanced Education, Financial Trust Company, Inc., HBRK Associates, Inc., Hyperion Air, Inc, JEGE, Inc., JEGE, LLC, NES, LLC, Plan D, LLC, Southern Financial, LLC, and Southern Trust Company.”
Attached to the lawsuit filed by ousted Attorney General George is an Exhibit 1, which is the text of the lawsuit the Virgin Islands recently settled against the Jeffrey Epstein estate. That lawsuit provides the following insight into the bank account operated by Southern Trust Company, which was supposed to be an information technology company:
“Despite having no visible clients and only one full-time employee working on information technology during the bulk of the period, Southern Trust Company reportedly generated net income of $50.3 million in 2013, $67.5 million in 2014, $52.8 million in 2015, and $4.8 million in 2016 and $17.1 million in 2017, with aggregate income of $117.8 million in 2014, $170.6 million in 2015, $175.3 million in 2016 and $192.4 million in 2017, or aggregate income for the period of $656 million…
“In fact, the main source of funds for the Epstein Enterprise came from Southern Trust. Between 2013 and 2017, Southern Trust reported approximately $184 million in revenues.
“Bank records show that virtually all of Southern Trust Company’s income came from a single source (including related entities).”
According to media reports, the vast majority of Southern Trust Company’s income came from Leon Black, the billionaire co-founder of private equity firm, Apollo Global Management. Black was sued last November by Cheri Pierson, who alleges he raped her at Epstein’s mansion in Manhattan in 2002. Another woman, Guzel Ganieva, has also alleged rape against Black.
Last November, Attorney General George settled her earlier lawsuit against the estate of Jeffrey Epstein for $105 million in cash, plus half the proceeds from the sale of Little St. James, the notorious private island where Epstein lived and allegedly molested an endless stream of underage girls. The settlement includes the disgorgement of $80 million in tax benefits that the Southern Trust Company fraudulently obtained from the Virgin Islands by characterizing itself as a legitimate technology company.
Epstein died of a reported suicide in a Manhattan jail on August 10, 2019 as he awaited trial on charges of engaging in the sex trafficking of underage girls.
Related Article:
Jes Staley’s Ties to Jeffrey Epstein at JPMorgan Chase Just Cost Him His CEO Job at Barclays