A senior Senate Democrat Monday raised contemporary questions with JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon in regards to the large financial institution’s dealing with of its longstanding ties to infamous pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), the highest Democrat on the finance committee, ripped Dimon in a brand new letter for blowing off his earlier requests for in depth disclosure in regards to the financial institution’s profitable relationship to Epstein and why it resisted baring particulars of its cozy ties with the accused intercourse trafficker for years.
He rejected Chase’s declare this month that solely a single financial institution exec knew that the financial institution ought to have reported greater than $1 billion in Epstein’s suspicious transactions to federal regulators a lot sooner than it did.
“It is not credible to suggest that one employee, no matter how senior, could be responsible for a compliance disaster of this scale,” Wyden wrote to Dimon.
The letter repeated Wyden’s calls for for 25 separate tranches of communications from Chase executives detailing their dealing with of the Epstein matter.
He chided Dimon for ignoring the identical requests in a letter despatched final month and reminded the banking titan that he has promised to return clear and cooperate with a congressional probe into Epstein, who dedicated suicide whereas awaiting trial in 2019.
“The victims of Epstein’s abuse and the American public deserve answers on the role major U.S. banks played in enabling Epstein’s crimes,” Wyden stated. “Much remains unknown about the extent to which the JPMC leadership may have turned a blind eye to Epstein’s criminal conduct.”
Wyden additionally known as on Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to launch what he stated might be an enormous variety of monetary paperwork associated to the Epstein case.
President Trump as soon as known as for the Epstein information to be launched in full. However in current months he has reversed course and refused to take action, calling the intercourse trafficking scandal a Democratic hoax.
Epstein was a longtime Chase consumer. The financial institution jettisoned him in 2013 after he was initially hit with state intercourse prices.
However it didn’t ship studies of suspicious transactions to federal prosecutors for six years, a delay Wyden and others say warrants additional investigation.
Chase responded to the preliminary Wyden letter by insisting it did nothing improper and knew nothing about his crimes.
It urged that former government Jes Staley was the one key determine on the financial institution who could have acted improperly.
“The firm deeply regrets having had Epstein as a client and would never have continued doing business with him if it believed he engaged in ongoing criminal conduct,” the financial institution stated in an Oct. 10 assertion addressed to Wyden.
