A top banker at JPMorgan desperately sought help from Jeffrey Epstein as the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme slammed the bank’s clients in 2008 — despite the fact that Epstein had recently been convicted of sex-trafficking charges, according to explosive new court documents.
On Dec. 12, 2008, Mary Erdoes — a star banker who is now the CEO of JPMorgan’s asset and wealth management division — frantically emailed a former top lieutenant at the bank, Jes Staley, as the Madoff disaster began to unfold, according to court papers that became public late Monday.
“[G]lenn and I have been going back and forth all night,” Erdoes wrote, referring to 66-year-old hedge-fund billionaire Glenn Dubin who — along with his wife Eva Andersson-Dubin — had been a longtime friend of Epstein.
“This is terrible. Just terrible … We have HUNDREDS of clients ….,” Erdoes wrote to Staley — a fellow star banker at JPMorgan.
Staley would later become CEO of UK banking giant Barclays before he was toppled by the Epstein scandal in 2021.
He is now facing a lawsuit from JPMorgan over his ties to the disgraced financier.
Staley denies any wrongdoing.
“The ny/palm beach community will be in shock,” Erdoes continued in her email to Staley, according to court papers filed by the US Virgin Islands in its ongoing lawsuit against JPMorgan in the US Southern District of New York.
“Can you call JE [Jeffrey Epstein] to get the scoop from down there?”
Six months earlier in June 2008, Epstein had pleaded guilty to charges of soliciting prostitution from a minor.
Yet Erdoes, who began working for JPMorgan in 1996 and rose to become CEO of the bank’s prestigious asset and wealth management business in 2009, continued to work with Epstein until 2013, the US Virgin Islands alleged in a motion for summary judgement.
In response, JPMorgan spokesperson Darin Oduyoye told The Post: “Mary Erdoes and others exited him as a client six years before he was charged with human trafficking,” referring to federal charges Epstein faced upon his arrest in July 2019.
“Mary has always held herself and her colleagues to the highest standards of integrity and trust, leading the Asset & Wealth Management business by example,” the spokesman added. “Her competence and character are top-notch, and she is consistently recognized as one of the top executives in financial services.”
As for the Madoff allegations, a JPMorgan spokesman said, “Jeffrey Epstein was in Florida where many of Madoff’s victims lived. If she had made any call at all, it would have been to reach out Jes to see if Epstein had any more details about what was happening there.”
Oduyoye also pointed to the bank’s statement filed in court papers on Monday, which claims that the US Virgin Islands financially profited off of Epstein and “knowingly used its sovereign powers to enable Epstein’s sex crimes.”
The US Virgin Islands “received $30 million in proceeds from the sale of Little St. James island [to Epstein],” JPMorgan alleged.
The lawsuit filed by the US Virgin Islands claims here were other alleged indications of cozy ties between Erdoes and Epstein.
In an email exchange from 2005, “Erdoes personally sought Epstein’s help in resolving a $600 million tax issue” on behalf of another unidentified individual, according to court documents.
“It was simply a request for an introduction and it was well before Epstein was arrested or officially accused of any crimes,” a JPMorgan spokesman told The Post.
In 2003, Epstein brought in over $8.1 million in revenue to JPMorgan’s private bank — making him its biggest client and twice as big as its No. 2 customer.
“Epstein was a personal resource to Erdoes,” the court documents claim.
The lawsuit filed by the US Virgin Islands claims that Epstein admitted to both Erdoes and Staley “that he had engaged in sex with multiple young women for money, only denying the girls’ ages.”
In 2006, two years before Epstein’s conviction, Staley emailed Erdoes, “Last night went to the Huggy Bear concert. The age difference between husbands and wifes [sic] would have fit in well with Jeffrey. What a joke.”
In response, Erdoes wrote, “Oh, and what I meant to tell you about last night was they [sic] were a
few people laughing about Jeffrey. One of the guys ran a unit of Apparently has 8 assistants, one is more beautiful than the other (even though he’s gay). Anyway, lots of comparisons to JE.”
Four years later in 2012, JP Morgan’s then-CFO of its asset wealth management division David Brigstocke shared with Erdoes that another client’s posh mansion resembled Epstein’s.
“Reminded me of JE’s house, except it was more tasteful, and fewer nymphettes,” he wrote.
Erdoes responded: “Wow.”
As Epstein’s importance to JPMorgan grew, some bankers grew increasingly uneasy.
In 2011, JPMorgan employees emailed each other about a “Law and Order SVU” episode that centered on “‘a billionaire pervert flying in underage girls for sex’ on his private jet,” according to court documents.
A year earlier, in a 2010 email filed in court papers, a compliance officer a part of JPMorgan’s in-house human trafficking expert emailed Erdoes that Epstein should be axed from the bank.
“My fear is will all our touting of good will on the [human trafficking] work, if anyone should ever say yet we bank Epstein, a known child sleaze. I sent you an e-mail yesterday on that scum Epstein,” the compliance officer wrote.
The officer worked under JP Morgan’s Global Head of Compliance, William Langford, the court documents showed.
In response, Langford repeatedly said “it’s time that we exit Epstein,” the court documents showed.
The official also said the bank’s involvement with Epstein “could be problematic in several ways,” according to the filing. “But business — including Erdoes — decided otherwise.”
Epstein remained a client until 2013, when red flags of Epstein’s massive cash withdrawals left the bank no choice but to yank him from the client list.
The Virgin Islands are seeking at least $190 million to settle the suit, including $150 million in civil fines and at least $40 million in penalties for maintaining a 15-year relationship with Epstein.
In June, the Wall Street behemoth agreed to pay $290 million to settle a lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court in November on behalf of anonymous victim Jane Doe and other unnamed Epstein accusers.
The suit claimed JPMorgan “knowingly” ignored red flags about Epstein until 2013 because and profited from his sex-trafficking venture as he brought other wealthy clients to the bank.
Just weeks before the historic settlement, three of Epstein’s victims penned emotional letters begging JPMorgan executives to admit they knew about his illegal operation.
One victim wrote to JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, and the two others wrote to Erdoes.
A letter sent from Courtney Wild to Erdoes, dated May 8, 2023, said that “all of the crimes he committed required cash and your bank should have recognized that what he was doing was criminal and illegal.”
Wild, who was 14 when Epstein exploited her, added: “Knowing full well that your bank and your bank alone had information to corroborate what dozens of kids like me were saying about the cash that he used to lure us in, abuse us and keep us quiet, you never notified law enforcement who were investigating his crimes.”
“As a mother, as a woman, as a former little girl, I want you to tell your lawyers to stop torturing victims,” Wild urged Erdoes, who has previously testified that she communicated with Epstein through phone calls and emails, and visited him in his New York City townhouse twice.
An unnamed victim who also wrote to Erdoes last year shared how she thought she was going to Epstein’s Manhattan apartment for an interview to be his part-time personal assistant when he sexually assaulted her.
The Jane Doe, who was 23 years old at the time of the abuse, said in the letter that her “life and career took a dark and drastic turn” after that day.
“Why did you let him stay at your bank after you knew the horrible things that he had done to so many little girls?” she asked.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
