Senate Democrats plan to investigate JPMorgan Chase's banking relationship with Jeffrey Epstein when they take control of Congress in January. Democratic staffers on the Senate Finance Committee, expected to be chaired by Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, will focus on how high-ranking executives at the nation's biggest bank handled Epstein, according to a source familiar with the panel's thinking.
The investigation will home in on decisions made by Mary Callahan Erdoes, CEO of JPMorgan's asset and wealth management division. In a 2023 deposition, Erdoes said she was aware as early as 2006 that Epstein was accused of paying cash to have underage girls brought to his home. Epstein had been a JPMorgan client since 1998. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said in his own 2023 deposition that Erdoes had authority to cut off Epstein as a client. She did not do so until 2013.
In August, Wyden released a report accusing top officials at multiple banks of "looking the other way" as Epstein moved hundreds of millions of dollars to finance sex trafficking. "The report exposes how top bankers shielded Epstein from federal scrutiny by delaying the reporting of Epstein's suspicious financial activity to the U.S. government, likely in violation of federal anti-money-laundering laws," Wyden's office said.
JPMorgan agreed to a $290 million settlement with Epstein victims in mid-2023 without admitting wrongdoing. That same year, the bank agreed to pay $75 million to settle a separate lawsuit by the U.S. Virgin Islands alleging it facilitated and benefited from Epstein's sex trafficking.