The notorious scandal of Jeffrey Epstein is taking on new, dramatic dimensions as it reaches the highest echelons of the global financial system. At the center of the investigations is the most powerful man on Wall Street and chief executive officer of JP Morgan, Jamie Dimon, who is facing suffocating pressure from the US Congress. The catalyst is a recent leak of documents from the US Department of Justice, which includes a "hidden," explosive email. The controversial electronic correspondence brings to light dark backstage dealings from 2009, showing the convicted sex offender financier involved in secret deliberations and "gentle threats" toward the British government, aiming to shape tax policy in favor of the American bank.
The pressure on Dimon
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren called on the boss of JP Morgan to state whether he exerted pressure on the British government against the tax on bankers' bonuses, following advice from convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Dimon, who has served as chairman and chief executive officer of the largest American bank for two decades, testified under oath in 2023 that he had never met Epstein and that he was not involved in any internal decision to retain the financier as a JP Morgan client after concerns were raised about his sex crimes.
However, a series of documents released by the US Department of Justice this year placed intense pressure on Dimon, one of the most powerful people on Wall Street, and raised new questions regarding his connections to Epstein. In a letter obtained by the Financial Times and sent to Dimon last week, Warren, the leading Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, told the banking executive: "It is critical that Congress and the American public fully understand the extent of any interactions you and the bank had with Epstein."
The… gentle threats
Earlier this year, the FT revealed that in 2009, Lord Peter Mandelson, then Britain's Business Secretary, told Epstein that Dimon should "gently threaten" Alistair Darling, the Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time, regarding a proposed tax on bankers' bonuses.
These revelations further increased the pressure on Mandelson, following FT reports that he received 75,000 dollars from Epstein starting in 2003, and that his husband also took money from the convicted sex offender. Mandelson was dismissed from his post as the United Kingdom's ambassador to the US due to his friendship with Epstein and is now under criminal investigation on suspicion of misconduct in office.
The Department of Justice emails showed Mandelson attempting to "modify" Darling's proposed tax on bankers' bonuses, which would impose an additional 50% tax rate on bonuses exceeding 25,000 pounds.
A week after Darling announced the measure, Epstein sent a message to Mandelson with proposals on how to soften the policy, including taxing only the cash portion of the bonuses.
Later, Epstein emailed Mandelson asking if Dimon should "call (Alistair) Darling one more time?". Mandelson replied, saying: "Yes, and gently threaten."
Darling later recalled in his memoirs that Dimon called him on the phone and was "very angry" about the proposed tax. Darling said Dimon pointed out that JPMorgan was a major employer and buyer of British government bonds (gilts) and threatened to halt investment in a new headquarters in London.
Subsequently, Mandelson founded a consulting firm named Global Counsel, which included JPMorgan among its clients.
Epstein's relations with JP Morgan
Warren stated that Dimon needed to explain the issues arising from the messages and posed a series of questions and requests for documents from the bank's boss, requesting details on the communications of himself and other JPMorgan employees with Epstein and British government officials.
"These emails that have resurfaced and the related reporting raise serious questions about the extent of the bank's relationship with Epstein, as well as your own knowledge of these ties," she wrote.
A spokesperson for JP Morgan stated: "Any relationship with this man was a mistake and we regret it, but we would not have continued to do business with him if we believed he was involved in ongoing crimes. We terminated him as a client in 2013 — years before his arrest by federal authorities for sex trafficking and years after the government had incriminating information which it withheld from us."
The bank also reiterated that Dimon never met Epstein and "did not participate in any decision regarding his account." Regarding the conversations in the United Kingdom, Dimon "regularly speaks his mind on bad, anti-growth policies and has his own opinions," it added. Any insinuation that Dimon spoke with Epstein or accepted advice from him is false, the bank stated.
Epstein was a client of JPMorgan's private bank from 1998 until the bank severed ties with him in 2013. JPMorgan agreed in 2023 to pay 290 million dollars to victims of Epstein's sexual abuse, who claimed that the bank ignored warnings about the disgraced financier, though the bank itself admitted no culpability or liability.
Jes Staley, a former JPMorgan investment banker who later became chief executive officer of Barclays, is facing separate questions from lawmakers regarding his connections to the convicted sex offender.
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