Associated Press
- JPMorgan's human trafficking experts urged the bank to cut ties with Jeffrey Epstein: court docs.
- They worried that banking with the "known child sleaze" would undermine efforts to combat trafficking.
- But, bank executives rejected the initiative's request, according to a new court filing.
JPMorgan Chase's in-house human trafficking experts urged the company to sever ties with "that scum Epstein" — but bank executives rejected their request, according to a new court filing.
AML compliance, the bank's experts who work to combat global human trafficking, expressed their concern in 2010 about continuing to work with Jeffrey Epstein, a known sex offender. They cited news stories that connected Jeffrey Epstein to human trafficking, according to the court document, which was filed in Manhattan court on Monday.
One member of the AML compliance wrote, according to the filing, "I sent you an e-mail yesterday on that scum Epstein," adding, "My fear is will all our touting of good will on the [Human Trafficking] work, if anyone should ever say yet we bank Epstein, a known child sleaze."
The compliance also requested that the bank "responsor this client in light of the new allegations of human trafficking which the firm has been actively assisting law enforcement in uncovering others engaged in this practice," the filing alleges.
The head of JPMorgan's human trafficking initiative also believed the company "should exit Jeffrey Epstein as a client," according to the filing.
Yet, the bank's business division decided to keep Epstein, despite the compliance's concerns, the filing alleges.
The overarching lawsuit behind Monday's filings — first filed in December by the US Virgin Islands — accuses JPMorgan of knowing for over a decade that Epstein was involved in trafficking underage girls for sex, but was keeping him as a client anyway.
"Any association with Epstein was a mistake and in hindsight we regret it, but we did not help him commit his heinous crimes," a representative for JPMorgan Chase told Insider in a statement. "We would never have continued to do business with him if we believed he was engaged in an ongoing sex trafficking operation."
Epstein died in jail in 2019 while he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges.