Newly revealed emails shed fresh light on JPMorgan’s cozy ties with Jeffrey Epstein, suggesting that top bankers on the Wall Street giant bent over backwards to accommodate the dead pedophile as he helped them line up lucrative clients — including Google and its co-founder Sergey Brin.
The US Virgin Islands filed explosive court papers on Tuesday in Manhattan federal court to bolster its allegation that Epstein played a key role as an investment “advisor” to the Silicon Valley search giant and Brin, whose personal portfolio of over $4 billion was among the many bank’s largest.
In an email from 2006 that was unsealed Tuesday, Mary Erdoes — a star banker who’s now the CEO of JPMorgan’s asset and wealth management division — urged colleagues to establish a team in Recent York somewhat than in San Francisco, where Google and Brin are based, to administer the accounts, in line with the court documents.
Erdoes wrote in the e-mail, which had the topic line “google”: “That is NOTHING to do with the skills of the SF team. That is solely due to our have to have a NY team cover a NY person, Jeffrey Epstein (because the advisor to the partners).”
That very same day, Ann Borowiec — then a managing director at JPMorgan’s NJ Private Bank — shared a message with the topic line “big latest business oppy,” informing colleagues that a Recent York-based team had been picked “to work with Jeffrey Epstein (advisor) on business oppy related to GRATS which are terminating for Google founders,” the filing showed.
Newly revealed emails shed fresh light on JPMorgan’s cozy ties with Jeffrey Epstein, including that the convicted sex offender served as an advisor to the bank’s lucrative Google accounts.Corbis via Getty Images
Mary Erdoes — CEO of JPMorgan’s asset and wealth management division — urged colleagues to establish a team in Recent York somewhat than San Francisco, where Google and Brin are based, per an unsealed electronic message from 2006.VCG via Getty Images
Borowiec was seemingly referring to Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts, which JPMorgan describes on its site as “an efficient option to transfer wealth with little or no gift tax liability.”
Also that day, Borowiec emailed several other JPMorgan employees, informing them: “We’re establishing a conference call. …It’s to get the needed background on the potential investment mgt opportunity related to Jeffrey Epstein (advisor) to the trusts arrange on behalf of the Google founder’s kids.”
It’s unclear if Borowiec was referring to Brin, though banker Robert A. Keller wrote in a memo when Brin became a JPMorgan client: “We work very closely with the Sergey Brin family office … and communicate with them not less than 1 x per day.”
Brin, a 49-year-old father-of-three, is now No. 11 on the Forbes list with a net value of $104.2 billion.
JP Morgan responded to the lawsuit’s allegations today, saying, “Fairly than account for its own failures to analyze and monitor this criminal under its jurisdiction, USVI blames a bank that didn’t have USVI’s authority to implement any law.”
“Any association with Epstein was a mistake and in hindsight we regret it, but we didn’t help him commit his heinous crimes,” a JPMorgan spokesperson added. “We might never have continued to do business with him if we believed he was engaged in an ongoing sex trafficking operation.”
Google and Brin didn’t immediately reply to requests for comment.
One other email exchange included within the bombshell documents revealed that JPMorgan’s current chief executive, Jamie Dimon, worked with a team of other executives in addition to Epstein on the bank’s acquisition of investment management firm Highbridge.
The so-called “Project Alpha” group included Jes Staley — who would later develop into CEO of UK banking giant Barclays before he was toppled by the Epstein scandal in 2021 — Dimon, who hadn’t yet taken over because the bank’s chief executive, billionaire Highbridge co-founder Glenn Dubin and Epstein, amongst others.
Epstein allegedly referred Google co-founder Sergey Brin to JPMorgan, in line with court papers. Brin, whose personal portfolio was over $4 billion, was among the many bank’s largest, the court papers revealed.Kimberly White
Once JPMorgan accomplished its Highbridge purchase in 2004, Staley requested that an email be sent to Dimon and Dubin with Epstein blind-copied, in line with the court papers.
He asked that the e-mail say: “You’ve done an incredible job of bringing our businesses together and delivering numbers…that may earn the envy of our industry. Thanks for the partnership. We’re well on our option to resume our position as probably the most respected asset and wealth managers.”
Though the US Virgin Islands alleged that Dimon and Epstein worked on this acquisition together, Dimon testified in a deposition in May that he never had any dealings with Epstein, and didn’t even know the sex offender was a JPMorgan client until his 2019 arrest.
Epstein, who committed suicide while awaiting trial in 2019, was a JPMorgan client from 1998 to 2013.
Dimon has called the bank’s relationship with Epstein a “terrible mistake” but says he was unaware of it on the time, as a substitute pointing the finger at Staley, who was the CEO of JPMorgan’s Asset Management division in 2004, when Dimon first joined the bank.
Other emails included within the court filing indicate that JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon worked on a team with Epstein that helped the bank acquire investment firm Highbridge.Getty Images
Staley, nonetheless, has contradicted the claim, saying that he and Dimon did, in reality, communicate about Epstein in 2006, when Epstein was first arrested, and again in 2008, when he pleaded guilty to soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution.
Staley and Dimon were colleagues at JPMorgan until 2009 when Staley left to move up Barclays.
The recent filing is the newest in a back-and-forth legal battle between JPMorgan and the US Virgin Islands, during which the US territory is in search of not less than $190 million to settle the suit that claims JPMorgan benefitted from Epstein’s infamous sex-trafficking ring while ignoring his sordid misdeeds.
The Virgin Islands’ counsel at Motley Rice declined to comment.
