WASHINGTON — Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. released a report Thursday asserting that top Wall Street banks allowed Jeffrey Epstein to move hundreds of millions of dollars globally, directly enabling his sex trafficking and money laundering operation.
The report, from the Senate Finance Committee where Wyden serves as ranking member, details years of alleged complicity by officials at Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America. It marks the end of a four-year investigation by the Oregon Democrat.
Wyden's findings say the banks ignored or failed to report suspicious financial transactions during a period when Epstein made more than $1 billion in identified suspicious transfers — cash payments and wire transfers to his victims, friends and collaborators across the world.
"By failing to report — or choosing not to report — his suspicious financial transactions to federal law enforcement, these banks allowed Epstein to send cash payments and wire transfers to his victims, friends and collaborators around the world," Wyden said.
The report specifies that transfers included payments directed to trafficked Eastern European women. The financial institutions' inaction helped Epstein evade federal scrutiny.
"The bankers who needed to be asking questions didn't ask them," Wyden said. "Jeffrey Epstein's crimes were hiding in plain sight."
The report suggests the banks may have violated federal anti-money laundering laws, which require financial institutions to file Suspicious Activity Reports — known as SARs — with federal law enforcement. Failure to file those reports may have prevented authorities from intervening in Epstein's financial activities.
The Senate Finance Committee's findings put pressure on financial regulators to examine the oversight mechanisms that allowed these transactions to proceed. The report does not recommend specific legislative actions, but its release by a senior Democrat on a powerful committee frames the issue as a systemic failure within the banking sector to prevent illicit finance.
