Wyden Releases New Report on Failure of Wall Street Banks to Blow the Whistle on Jeffrey Epstein’s Sex Trafficking and Money Laundering Schemes

Wyden Releases New Report on Failure of Wall Street Banks to Blow the Whistle on Jeffrey Epstein's Sex Trafficking and Money Laundering Schemes

'Looking the Other Way' Report Caps 4-Year Investigation Into Banks Ignoring Hundreds of Millions of Dollars in Suspicious Transfers; Report Reveals Obstruction by Treasury Department, Senate Republicans and Major Banks; Wyden Outlines Roadmap for Accountability and Legislation to Stop the Ultra-Wealthy from Brazenly Flouting the Law

Washington, D.C. - Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., today released a new report detailing how years of complicity by top officials at multiple Wall Street Banks enabled Jeffrey Epstein to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars around the world to finance his sex trafficking operation.

Wyden's report, "Looking the Other Way," caps a 4-year investigation that included the review of Suspicious Activity reports (SARs), material from multiple lawsuits and court filings and requests for information sent to Wall Street Banks and the Treasury Department. The report lays out compelling evidence that top bankers looked the other way and allowed Epstein to have ready access to the mountains of cash he used to lure, harbor, and transport his victims.

The report exposes how top bankers shielded Epstein from federal scrutiny by delaying the reporting of Epstein's suspicious financial activity to the U.S. government, likely in violation of federal anti-money-laundering laws. It includes new details about the extent of suspicious activity reported by Deutsche Bank after Epstein's death, new details from bank reports filed about suspicious transfers to Epstein through accounts at Bank of America, and names top officials at JPMorgan Chase and other banks who were responsible for reporting Epstein's shady activities to the government but instead protected Epstein in order to gain access to Leon Black and other billionaires.

"I said from the start that if you want to get to the bottom of the Jeffery Epstein cover-up, you had to follow the money. My small team of investigators did what Trump's attorney general and Treasury secretary said was impossible: they connected the dots and found evidence of multiple crimes related to Epstein's associates. Bank records they reviewed, along with public court filings, detail a shocking pattern of the biggest Wall Street banks in the country choosing to ignore clear evidence of sex trafficking and money laundering, just to keep a wealthy client on the books," Wyden said. "This report is a ready-made roadmap for prosecutors, investigators and members of Congress to finally start holding the Epstein class accountable."

Sen. Wyden's report includes recommended changes to federal anti-money laundering laws to ensure the ultra-wealthy cannot hide massive, illegal transactions. The changes include personal confirmation by bankers that they have reviewed potentially suspicious transactions in accounts belonging to ultra-wealthy clients and conducted legally required due diligence for large wire transfers. Bankers who fail to report suspicious transactions in a timely manner would face increased civil or even criminal penalties for patterns of negligence. The legislation would also require banks to notify the Treasury Department when a client is exited over concerns about involvement with human trafficking, money laundering or other crimes.

The full report is available here.

Background on Senator Wyden's Epstein investigation: Senator Wyden's Epstein investigation began in 2022 with an inquiry into the sex trafficker's absurdly priced tax planning for multi-billionaire Leon Black, the co-founder of Apollo Global Management.

In 2024, following a request from Finance Committee Democratic staff for access to Treasury's Epstein files, the Biden administration allowed committee investigators to review more than a thousand pages of documents in person at the Treasury Department. Later that year Senator Wyden requested the Treasury produce the Epstein file for the committee to investigate further. He made the same request early in the Trump administration, which came into office promising a greater level of transparency on Epstein matters. He also obtained Leon Black's settlement with the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands and released new information pertaining to Black's payment of $170 million to Epstein over several years, ostensibly for tax and estate planning services.

In June, Senator Wyden again sought the Epstein files and laid out a blueprint for a proper follow-the-money investigation given the Trump administration's refusal to act, and the following month he revealed that Epstein's huge transactions and tax planning work may never have been investigated or audited by the IRS. In a letter to the Treasury Secretary sent in September, Senator Wyden identified several individuals with documented Epstein ties and again demanded the Epstein files.

In November, Senator Wyden released a detailed analysis of the ways in which JPMorgan Chase protected Epstein and enabled his sex trafficking operation through an egregious series of compliance failures spanning nearly two decades. In December Senator Wyden blasted the Trump administration for violating the Epstein Files Transparency Act by withholding the vast majority of the Epstein files it is legally required to release publicly, and he questioned why the Department of Justice had reportedly failed to question key Epstein co-conspirators in any criminal investigation related to Epstein's trafficking network.

In January, he expanded his investigation with a new probe of Epstein's relationship with Bank of New York Mellon and the hundreds of millions of dollars he moved in suspicious transactions through BNY accounts. In late February, following the revelation that Epstein and several associates were targets in a secretive, federal investigation into drug trafficking, prostitution and money laundering, Senator Wyden sought details and a key document from the Drug Enforcement Administration as to the results of that investigation. Weeks later, Senator Wyden announced that he had learned Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, had intervened to block the DEA from complying with Wyden's request.

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