US regulators ‘taking seriously’ allegations of bankers’ support for Epstein | Banking

US regulators say they’re taking allegations that high banks might have facilitated Jeffrey Epstein’s felony exercise “very significantly”, as they confronted calls to analyze executives together with the previous Barclays boss Jes Staley.In correspondence seen by the Guardian, bosses from the Workplace of the Comptroller of the Forex (OCC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance coverage Company (FDIC) mentioned they’d reviewed a letter from the Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren, which raised considerations over bankers’ alleged assist for the convicted little one intercourse offender Epstein.That features Staley, who Warren mentioned had allegedly protected Epstein’s entry to the banking system whereas working at JP Morgan within the early 2000s. Staley has already been banned from the UK banking sector for taking part in down his relationship with Epstein.Whereas the regulators wouldn’t publicly verify whether or not they had been opening formal inquiries, their administrators assured Warren they’d take motion over any potential misconduct.“Whereas it will be inappropriate to touch upon any particular ongoing supervisory matter, I take very significantly any allegations of wrongdoing or abuse by banks and financial institution executives,” the comptroller of the forex, Jonathan Gould, mentioned in a letter to Warren, who’s the lead Democrat on the US Senate committee on banking, housing and concrete affairs.“We admire the seriousness of this matter and can proceed to look at banks, together with JP Morgan Chase Financial institution, NA, throughout the scope of our authority, together with to make sure banks deal with security and soundness considerations and violations of regulation below our jurisdiction,” Gould added.Warren’s authentic letter raised questions over JP Morgan’s wider banking relationship with the intercourse offender, noting that Epstein was one of many financial institution’s most worthwhile shoppers earlier than being dropped in 2013, 5 years after he was jailed for soliciting prostitution from a minor. The well-connected financier died in jail in July 2019, whereas awaiting trial over little one intercourse trafficking fees.The FDIC’s performing chair, Travis Hill, mentioned the regulator took “illegal exercise involving the banking sector, together with attainable insider involvement in illicit exercise, very significantly”.His letter, dated 17 November, mentioned “if any such exercise is recognized” the watchdog would observe customary protocol: gathering and reviewing potential proof, earlier than escalating the matter to the FDIC’s inspector normal’s workplace, which has regulation enforcement powers.Wrongdoing might lead to a superb and a possible ban from working within the US banking sector.The FDIC and OCC declined to remark. The Guardian contacted Staley’s authorized consultant for remark.Warren mentioned in an announcement: “Regulators want to analyze and maintain accountable Epstein’s enablers – and I’ll imagine they’re taking motion once I see it. People should know that their banking system isn’t facilitating the disturbing crimes of the wealthy and highly effective.”A spokesperson for JP Morgan didn’t instantly touch upon Warren’s correspondence with regulators however in relation to Epstein mentioned: “We remorse any affiliation we had with the person, however didn’t assist him commit his heinous acts. We ended our relationship with him six years earlier than his arrest on intercourse trafficking fees. The federal authorities had damning details about his crimes that they did not share with us or different banks.”Final week Warren used an look on The Late Present with Stephen Colbert to induce the JP Morgan chief govt, Jamie Dimon, to testify in entrance of the US Senate banking committee.skip previous e-newsletter promotionSign as much as Enterprise TodayGet set for the working day – we’ll level you to all of the enterprise information and evaluation you want each morningPrivacy Discover: Newsletters might comprise details about charities, on-line advertisements, and content material funded by exterior events. When you don’t have an account, we are going to create a visitor account for you on theguardian.com to ship you this text. You may full full registration at any time. For extra details about how we use your information see our Privateness Coverage. We use Google reCaptcha to guard our web site and the Google Privateness Coverage and Phrases of Service apply.after e-newsletter promotion“They opened about 134 totally different accounts for Jeffrey Epstein over these years. They did greater than a billion {dollars} in transactions for Jeffrey Epstein … He actually might stroll into the financial institution and get $50m from JP Morgan Chase.“So, what I’d love to do, over on the banking committee, is I’d wish to have Mr Dimon and a few of these different bankers are available and, below oath, testify about precisely what the monetary path is that stored Jeffrey Epstein afloat for thus lengthy.”JP Morgan mentioned in an announcement: “Jamie by no means met with Epstein, spoke with him, emailed with him, and was not concerned in any selections about his account, to which he testified below oath. There are over 1,000,000 pages of emails and different paperwork produced on this case, and never one comes even near suggesting in any other case.”The financial institution’s spokesperson added: “We are going to observe the regulation, together with responding to a subpoena. Our involvement with Epstein is basically a matter of public file, with hundreds of thousands of pages of discovery from litigation already publicly out there.”The correspondence between Warren and US monetary regulators comes days after Donald Trump was pressed into signing a invoice that can result in the US justice division releasing all of its unclassified information, paperwork, and communications associated to Epstein and the co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell.It follows preliminary backtracking by the US president, who had come below fireplace for his personal ties to the intercourse offender, having been associates with Epstein earlier than the pair fell out in 2004, earlier than Epstein’s conviction. 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