JPMorgan executives had contact with Jeffrey Epstein after it dropped him as a client

JPMorgan Chase executives allegedly had contact with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein for years after his relationship with the bank formally ended in 2013, according to people briefed on the matter.

Several executives at JPMorgan’s private bank where Epstein had been a client, including Justin Nelson and Paul Barrett, allegedly met with him at various times after his relationship with the bank was terminated, the people said. Barrett has since left JPMorgan.

Mary Erdoes, who has held several senior roles at the bank and runs its $4tn asset and wealth management business, also allegedly made visits to the late sex offender’s New York home in 2011 and 2013, several years after his 2006 arrest in Florida, where he was charged with solicitation of a minor for prostitution, the people said.

She also exchanged dozens of emails with Epstein while he was a client of the bank from around 1998 until 2013, they said.

JPMorgan had previously told The New York Times in 2019 that Erdoes only remembered “formally meeting” Epstein once — when she informed him his relationship with the bank was being terminated.

A JPMorgan spokesperson said that any interactions Epstein had with the bank after his relationship ceased had been related to his role as an adviser to other clients. Nelson and Barrett did not immediately respond to requests for comment on LinkedIn.

The latest allegations, which were first reported by The Wall Street Journal, come amid a legal battle involving an alleged Epstein victim, JPMorgan, its former executive Jes Staley, and the US Virgin Islands, where Epstein had a home. Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges that he sex-trafficked underage girls.

Both the Epstein accuser and the USVI have sued JPMorgan, which banked Epstein for 15 years, accusing it of benefiting from human trafficking by ignoring internal red flags about his behaviour.

In turn, JPMorgan has sued Staley, who worked at the bank for more than three decades, and accused him of actively participating in Epstein’s crimes and failing to inform the bank about them, or the full extent of his relationship with Epstein. Staley denies the allegations. He went on to work as chief executive of Barclays, and stepped down from that role in 2021 after a regulatory investigation into the way he described his relationship with Epstein.

The lawsuits, which are heading to trial in October, have been combined for pre-trial purposes. The discovery process has led to the questioning of a series of current and former JPMorgan executives under oath, behind closed doors.

In her deposition, Erdoes said that JPMorgan had been aware that Epstein had been accused of paying cash to have “underage girls and young women” brought to his home some seven years before the bank dropped him as a client, legal filings stated.

Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan’s longstanding chief executive, is due to be questioned next month. He has denied having any knowledge of the bank’s deliberations over retaining Epstein.