“Following the money is at the heart of dealing with corrupt behavior,” said Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, who began investigating Epstein’s financial transactions three years ago that uncovered 4,725 wire transfers from one Epstein bank account totaling almost $1.1 billion, among other unusual activity. “He was doing deals involving very wealthy people who financed his activities and people who were procuring sex trafficking services, based on everything we saw.”
Epstein, who pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl, became rich working as a financier for wealthy clients during the same time period he is accused of sex trafficking minors. He died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges in a death that was ruled a suicide.
As the Justice Department prepares its files for release by Dec. 19, the focus in Congress now is turning to obtaining the Treasury Department’s suspicious activity reports, which contain details about large financial transactions involving Epstein. And there could be another fight brewing as Democrats and Republicans spar over who is more committed to releasing Epstein’s records vs. scoring political points.
House Oversight Committee chair James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, wrote to the Treasury Department on Aug. 31 requesting records related to Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. An associate of Epstein, Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence after being found guilty in 2021 of conspiring with him to sexually abuse minors.
On Sept. 12, a Treasury Department official responded to Comer by noting the suspicious activity reports are “highly sensitive and confidential,” while also saying the department “plans to fully cooperate with the committee.” Financial institutions are required to submit a report when there are signs of suspicious activity, such as an unusually large number of wire transfers or unusually complex transactions.
A House Oversight Committee spokeswoman said Friday the committee had received the suspicious activity reports from the Treasury Department. But Wyden said the department has been “stonewalling” his request for the records. A Treasury Department spokesperson referred to the September House letter when asked for comment.
Wyden has introduced the Produce Epstein Treasury Records Act to require the release of the suspicious activity reports. The bill is similar to legislation forcing the release of Justice Department records that was overwhelmingly approved by Congress this week after House Republican leaders tried for months to kill it.
Trump, who also actively opposed that legislation, finally relented when it was clear it was going to pass. He signed the bill on Wednesday.
Warren said the push for Epstein financial records could be similar.
“This fight will be much like the fight over the Epstein files at [the Justice Department]. So long as Trump resists, the Republicans also refuse to cooperate,” she said. “Finally, in that case the dam broke, and I hope the same does here.”
Despite Democratic criticism that Trump was trying to renege on a campaign promise and prevent the release of files, Comer said House Republicans were committed to getting to the truth.
“We’re going to continue to investigate the atrocities of Epstein and Maxwell and we’re going to continue to give the American people full transparency,” he told Fox News on Wednesday. “That’s what the Oversight Committee is doing, despite the Democrats’ effort to score political points by embarrassing Trump.”
Representative Ro Khanna, a California Democrat who was a key player in the House push for the Justice Department files, said some Epstein suspicious activity reports could be among the Justice Department files if they were part of criminal investigations. But he said getting all the Treasury Department records is crucial.
“How is he worth a half a billion dollars? And who was paying him, and why were they paying him?” Khanna said of Epstein. “I’m pushing to make sure … the financial records come out.”
On Thursday, Wyden released an analysis based on newly unsealed court records that said JPMorgan Chase “severely underreported Epstein’s suspicious financial activity” for nearly two decades. Before Epstein’s death, the bank filed suspicious activity reports with the Treasury Department for only a small number of transactions, totaling about $4.3 million.
After Epstein died, JP Morgan Chase retroactively filed reports covering thousands of transactions dating to 2003 that totaled almost $1.3 billion. “The bank’s conduct should be fully investigated to determine whether the underreporting of suspicious activity reports … was deliberate,” the analysis said.
A JP Morgan Chase spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. In September, a spokesperson told The New York Times its relationship with Epstein was “a mistake” that it regretted in hindsight, but the bank “did not help him commit his heinous crimes.” In 2023, JP Morgan Chase agreed to pay $290 million to settle a class-action lawsuit with Epstein victims.
The Wyden analysis did not cover Deutsche Bank, which has also denied wrongdoing. A bank spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. In 2020, the bank’s chief executive told CNBC Epstein “should have never been our client” after it was hit with a $150 million fine by New York regulators for “significant compliance failures” in the matter. Three years later, Deutsche Bank also settled a suit from Epstein victims, agreeing to pay $75 million.
Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, has also taken aim at JP Morgan Chase. On Oct. 28, she asked top federal banking regulators “to investigate all current and former U.S. banking executives who may have facilitated Jeffrey Epstein’s illicit conduct.” As an example, she cited former JP Morgan executive James Edward Staley, whom The New York Times described as Epstein’s “chief defender” at the bank when red flags arose about potentially illicit activity given his transactions.
JP Morgan Chase has blamed its involvement with Epstein on Staley. He could not be reached for comment.
Warren has also asked banking committee chair Tim Scott, a South Carolina Republican, for a hearing on how Epstein used the financial system. She would like to see JP Morgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon and others testify. Scott has not committed yet to a hearing, Warren said.
But she is continuing to push in order to learn more about Epstein’s alleged crimes and to determine if new regulations are needed to prevent a repeat.
“No criminal enterprise can survive without money, especially one that stretches over many years. Banks that facilitate criminal activities are often in violation of the law,” Warren said. “There are laws requiring banks to report certain suspicious activities so that, for example, someone can’t move around large sums of money to procure young girls for wealthy men. Congress can follow the money.”
Jim Puzzanghera can be reached at jim.puzzanghera@globe.com. Follow him @JimPuzzanghera.