By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: September 13, 2023 ~

A closer look at the trail of lawlessness perpetrated by Jeffrey Epstein while he was receiving VIP treatment from executives and licensed brokers at the largest bank in the United States – JPMorgan Chase – demands a comprehensive investigation by a genuinely independent Special Counsel.

After Epstein had sexually assaulted dozens of underage school girls in Palm Beach County, Florida, the Florida State Attorney and the U.S. Department of Justice cut him a sweetheart deal that allowed him to serve just 13 months in jail from June 2008 to July 2009 – the majority of the time in a work release program where Epstein was driven to an office each day by his limo driver.

After his cozy jail time, Epstein was supposed to spend one year under house arrest at his Palm Beach residence. But in the Netflix series on Epstein, Filthy Rich, based on the book by the same name, a Palm Beach police official explains what actually happened, stating: (See Clip 7 at this link.)

“He would violate his probation almost on a daily basis. There’s 11 pages here of just different violations. I think, I, myself, documented 66 different days that he violated his probation…He would go to New York, to his island, he would go to the airport, jump in his helicopter. Who knows where he went – without telling anybody. Every time I brought the probation office a case, they kept telling me the same thing. What would you like us to do? He’s a celebrity. I mean, just think about this: You have a pedophile out on probation – to violate probation in the state of Florida is illegal, except for Jeffrey Epstein.”

Despite having videotaped testimony from Epstein’s victims and statements confirming the abuse from a multitude of witnesses, the U.S. Department of Justice allowed this pedophile to remain on the loose – traveling throughout the United States and around the world on his private jets – sexually abusing girls and women for another decade, until his arrest in July 2019 on federal sex trafficking of minor charges.

The Department of Justice was likely shamed into finally taking action against Epstein by reporter Julie Brown’s explosive series on Epstein’s sex crimes in the Miami Herald in November 2018.

Brazenly violating probation and ramping up his sex trafficking of minors were just two of the multitude of ways that Epstein showed his complete disregard for the laws of the United States. Epstein also violated political campaign contribution laws.

Prior to the passage of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, the contribution limits were not indexed for inflation and remained constant each election cycle. From 1976 through 2002, those federal campaign limits were as follows: $1,000 per individual to a candidate or candidate committee per election; $20,000 to a national party committee per calendar year; $5,000 to any other political committee per calendar year; and $25,000 in total per calendar year.

Despite the cap of $25,000 per calendar year, in the calendar year of 1998, according to the Federal Election Commission records, Jeffrey Epstein sluiced $36,000 to the following: $5,000 to the Liberal Party of New York State; $5,000 to the Independence Party Federal Committee; $10,000 to Victory in New York; $5,000 to Win New York (both Victory in New York and Win New York were joint fundraising committees in which the [Charles] Schumer ’98 committee participated); $2,000 to [Daniel Patrick] Moynihan Committee Inc.; and $9,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. (See the FEC record here; give the page time to load.)

Epstein had shown no broad interest in funding federal political campaigns until after he obtained his bizarre, all-encompassing, power-of-attorney for retailing magnate Leslie Wexner in 1991. According to federal lobbying reports, Wexner’s retailing chain, Limited Inc., spent more than $1 million lobbying for passage of HR 4444, Permanent Trade Relations with China, and HR 434, the Trade and Development Act of 2000, encompassing trade with Africa and the Caribbean Basin. President Bill Clinton signed both pieces of legislation into law in 2000. According to flight logs, Bill Clinton took multiple flights on Epstein’s private jet. News reports also indicate that Epstein visited the White House 17 times while Clinton was President.

Epstein was not registered as a federal lobbyist. But given his dismissive attitude toward laws for the little people, it would not be surprising if he used his White House visits to push for the passage of the two bills that Wexner wanted passed. Wexner was the source of the bulk of Epstein’s wealth.

Federal election records show that Epstein’s generosity to federal political campaigns abruptly ended in 2002, after he apparently got what he wanted out of Washington.

Another of Epstein’s crimes was violating money laundering laws with the willful blindness of JPMorgan Chase: Under U.S. banking laws, banks are required to file a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) with the federal Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) under the following circumstances:

“insider abuse involving any amount; transactions aggregating $5,000 or more where a suspect can be identified; transactions aggregating $25,000 or more regardless of potential suspects; and transactions aggregating $5,000 or more that involve potential money laundering or violations of the BSA [Bank Secrecy Act].”

But according to a court filing in the civil lawsuit brought by the U.S. Virgin Islands against JPMorgan Chase for “actively participating” in Epstein’s sex trafficking venture, the following sums were provided to Epstein in cold hard cash by JPMorgan Chase – despite the bank’s knowledge that Epstein paid his victims and recruiters in cash:

“Epstein was able to withdraw large amounts of cash from his JPMC accounts for years [Redacted]. In the year 2003, Epstein was able to withdraw highly suspicious amounts of cash totaling $175,311. In 2004, he withdrew $840,000. In 2005, he withdrew $904,337. In 2006, he withdrew $938,625. In 2007, he withdrew $526,000. In 2008, he withdrew $469,000. In 2009, he withdrew $165,011. In 2010, he withdrew $253,397. In 2011, he withdrew $260,000. In 2012, he withdrew $290,000. In 2013, he withdrew $197,152.”

In oral arguments in the U.S. Virgin Islands federal court case in Manhattan on August 31, an attorney for JPMorgan Chase attempted to diffuse the reality of the wads of cash it lavished on a Level 3 Registered Sex Offender by stating that the bank had notified the Treasury Department six times dating back to 2002 about Epstein’s cash withdrawals. But since the bank has not challenged the U.S. Virgin Islands’ statement that the bank never filed Suspicious Activity Reports until after Epstein died while awaiting trial in his jail cell in 2019, that likely means that JPMorgan Chase only filed Currency Transaction Reports (CTRs) — which raise far less red flags than a Suspicious Activity Report.

We could go on and on, but, tragically, you get the picture of a law enforcement, financial and political system that lets a brazen child molester and serial crook live in luxury over decades of hideous crimes.