After Jeffrey Epstein’s death in 2019, his former bank, Jpmorgan, notified of suspicious activity to the Treasury Department of more than $1 billion from his accounts, according to lawyers for the U.S. Virgin Islands. JPMorgan reported the suspicious Epstein transactions to the U.S. Treasury Department following Epstein’s suicide in 2019, Mimi Liu, a lawyer for the territory, said at a hearing concerning its lawsuit against the largest U.S. bank. A lawyer for the U.S. Virgin Islands said on Thursday that JPMorgan Chase told U.S. authorities it processed more than $1 billion for Jeffrey Epstein over 16 years in suspicious activity.

Epstein had been a JPMorgan client from 1998 to 2013, when the bank fired him. The disgraced financier had been awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges at the time of his death.

“Epstein’s entire business with JPMorgan and JPMorgan’s entire business with Epstein was human trafficking,” Liu said during the hearing, adding that JPMorgan was the “full service” financial arm for the late money-manager’s suspicious activity.

JPMorgan suspicious activity

Liu also highlighted other suspicious activities: Epstein’s accounts transferred $4 million to women and girls and had $5 million in suspicious withdrawals. She roughly broke down the total $9 million and divided it by the couple hundred of dollars that Epstein was known to pay both victims and recruiters, saying it amounted to JPMorgan “facilitating” around 20,000 suspicious activity.

The U.S. Virgin Islands, where Epstein owned two private islands, is suing JPMorgan for at least $190 million and likely much more, saying it ignored red flags that Epstein was running a sex trafficking operation because he was a lucrative client.

Suspicious Epstein transactions

Liu mentioned the $1 billion amount of suspicious Epstein transactions, which had not been previously disclosed, in arguing that U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan should find before the case goes to trial that the bank participated in Epstein’s sex trafficking.

She said no reasonable juror could find that JPMorgan was in the dark about its jet-setting client.

JPMorgan response to U.S. Treasury

JPMorgan has denied knowing that Epstein was running a sex trafficking operation and has faulted the territory for having a cozy relationship with him.

Felicia Ellsworth, a lawyer for JPMorgan, said it was not appropriate for the judge to determine the question of the bank’s knowledge before trial, because current and former employees have testified that they were unaware of Epstein’s follies.

She said JPMorgan notified about suspicious activity to the Treasury Department at least six times, including as early as 2002.

Ellsworth also disputed the U.S. Virgin Islands’ claim that JPMorgan obstructed investigations into Epstein, saying the bank had asked federal authorities about their own probes into suspicious Epstein’s transactions.

That is “the polar opposite of trying to obstruct,” she said.

JPMorgan suspicious activity trial

An Oct 23 trial is scheduled. Rakoff said he would decide by the end of September whether to resolve major legal disputes sooner.

In June, Rakoff preliminarily approved JPMorgan’s $290 million settlement with women who say Epstein abused them.

Deutsche Bank DBKGn.DE, where Epstein was a client from 2013 to 2018, had earlier reached a $75 million settlement with his accusers.

More exposed in suspicious activity

Since the lawsuit was filed last December, the litigation has exposed high-profile men in Epstein’s orbit including Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who he introduced to JPMorgan in one of the bank’s most lucrative relationships.

Even after JPMorgan honchos cut Epstein off as a client, he continued to refer people to the financial giant, including former White House counsel Kathy Ruemmler. Epstein’s executive assistant had emailed Mary Erdoes, the CEO of the bank’s Asset & Wealth Management arm, about Ruemmler just months before his 2019 arrest for child sex-trafficking.

One JPMorgan memo from October 2006 noted that Epstein’s cash withdrawals were “routinely made in amounts for $40,000 to $80,000 several times a month.”

Jane Doe, a survivor of Epstein’s sex ring, had also sued JPMorgan for facilitating the financier’s crimes. The class-action lawsuit settled for $290 million.

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