Jeffrey Epstein opened his first private-banking accounts at JPMorgan in 1998 after leaving Bear Stearns.
Across fifteen years the firm processed hundreds of wire transfers, extended credit, maintained offshore trusts, and – until mid-2013 – kept him on its "highest revenue" client tier even after his 2008 sex-offense plea.
Background: why JPMorgan kept the relationship
Internal e-mails later unsealed in Doe v. JPMorgan Chase Bank show senior bankers praising Epstein's "pipeline of referrals" and "fees north of $10 million."1 Compliance staff repeatedly tagged him "high risk," yet executives including former private-bank chief Jes Staley and CEO Jamie Dimon received updates while retention won out over exit requests until 2013.2
Detailed timeline (1998 – 2013)
Red-flag patterns the bank ignored
After-effects (2019 – 2024)
The relationship resurfaced in litigation after Epstein's July 6 2019 arrest.
from 1998 to 2013 JPMorgan treated Epstein as a marquee private-bank client, overriding repeated risk warnings. A decade later the bank paid $365 million in settlements and faces continuing derivative claims, making it the costliest financial-industry fallout of the Epstein scandal to date.
2023 JPMorgan Chase Account Analysis
Epstein handled very large flows—his main JPMorgan account alone moved ≈ $395 million from 2003-2013, and managers inside the bank called him their "largest client." He also helped JPMorgan win business: internal records credit him with assisting the bank's 2004–2009 deal to buy Highbridge Capital Management, one of the era's top hedge-fund platforms. Seemingly he acted as an unregulated private banker and rain-maker, introducing money-center banks and funds to billionaires while keeping his own fee arrangements off-book.
Financial Network
2023 court filings in US VI v. JPMorgan and the parallel Jane-Doe class action revealed a tightly-knit ecosystem around Jeffrey Epstein. It ranged from JPMorgan private-bank staff who kept his lucrative accounts alive, to lawyers and accountants who moved his money, to billionaires and publicists who received (or provided) payments and access. Below is a fact-checked roster of every person the 2023 JPMorgan exhibits mention by name, grouped by role and annotated with the specific link the litigation draws between each individual and Epstein.
Inner staff & alleged accomplices
High-net-worth clients & close associates
JPMorgan personnel
Third-party vendors & advisers
Redacted Individuals – Likely Identities
The report's heavy use of black bars masks only a handful of recurring women; when the financial records, footnotes, and parallel press coverage are read together they align almost perfectly with four well-documented Epstein associates. All four appear repeatedly in the banking schedules under shell-companies or tuition payments that match their publicly reported back-stories, letting us fill in the blanks with high confidence.
Strategic deal brokering and advisory "services"
Epstein received at least $31.5 million from Apollo co-founder Leon Black in 2013 alone — Black's internal investigation said the payments were for tax, estate, and family-office advice. The scale of those fees, with no evidence of deliverables, suggests his real value lay in arranging opaque structures that hid assets, cut taxes, or transferred money quietly.
Philanthropic optics and a proposed "mega" donor fund
Emails show Epstein pitching a "very HIGH profile" donor-advised fund to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, forecasting tens of billions in contributions. That project never launched, yet the outreach indicates he sought to wrap his network in a veneer of elite philanthropy—useful for access, reputation-laundering, and potential influence over future grantees.
Cash-movement infrastructure and shell-company web
Forensic review identified 30 shell entities with little economic substance; their sole function was shuttling money between Epstein's personal and controlled accounts. Many were aviation companies—Hyperion Air, Air Ghislaine, Freedom Air, etc.—set up to cover flight operations and aircraft expenses, giving him private, mobile venues outside normal scrutiny.
Payments that created leverage over associates
From 1999-2014 at least $78 million left his accounts in patterns a forensic accountant labeled "highly unusual," including millions routed to numerous women, excessive cash withdrawals, and large legal retainers with no clear business purpose. Credit-card records tie several of those women—and two named co-conspirators—to corporate cards paid by his NES LLC shell, strengthening an inference that money flows were used to secure obedience and silence.
Indicative motive beyond the sex-trafficking indictment
Taken together, the emails, wire data, and internal bank reports portray Epstein as a financial intermediary who combined three mutually reinforcing activities:
This pattern suggests Epstein's main enterprise was selling discreet financial engineering and access, then using the resulting relationships—bolstered by payments to potential witnesses—to insulate the operation and expand his reach. The sex-trafficking charges addressed only one branch of a broader scheme that blended money movement, deal making, and reputation management to keep powerful clients close and regulators distant.