Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren has called on JPMorgan Chase boss Jamie Dimon to say whether he lobbied the UK government against a tax on bankers’ bonuses on the advice of child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Dimon, who has been chair and chief executive of the largest US bank for two decades, said under oath in 2023 that he had never met Epstein and was not involved in any internal decisions to retain the disgraced financier as a JPMorgan client after concerns were raised about his sex crimes.
But a cache of documents released by the US Department of Justice this year has piled pressure on Dimon, one of the most powerful figures on Wall Street, and raised fresh questions about his links with Epstein.
In a letter seen by the FT and sent to Dimon last week, Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate banking committee, told the banking boss: “It is critical that Congress and the American public fully understand the extent of any interactions the bank and you had with Epstein.”
Earlier this year, the FT revealed that in 2009, Lord Peter Mandelson, then Britain’s business secretary, told Epstein that Dimon should “mildly threaten” Alistair Darling, the chancellor at the time, over a proposed tax on banker bonuses.
The revelations added further pressure to Mandelson after the FT reported that he received $75,000 from Epstein beginning in 2003 and that his husband also took money from the convicted sex offender. Mandelson was sacked as UK ambassador to the US over his friendship with Epstein and is now under criminal investigation on suspicion of misconduct in public office.
DoJ emails showed Mandelson trying to “amend” Darling’s proposed tax on bankers’ bonuses, which would have levied an additional 50 per cent tax rate on bonuses of more than £25,000.
A week after Darling announced the measure, Epstein messaged Mandelson with suggestions on how to soften the policy, including only taxing the cash portion of bonuses.
Epstein later emailed Mandelson asking whether Dimon should “call (Alistair) darling one more time?” Mandelson replied, saying: “Yes and mildly threaten.”
Darling later recalled in his memoirs that Dimon called him and was “very, very angry” about the proposed tax. Darling said Dimon pointed out that JPMorgan was a major employer and purchaser of UK gilts and threatened to halt investment in a new headquarters in London.
Mandelson went on to set up an advisory firm called Global Counsel that included JPMorgan among its clients.
Warren said Dimon needed to explain the issues raised in the messages and set out a series of questions and requests for documents from the banking boss detailing his and other JPMorgan employees’ communications with Epstein and UK government officials.
“These resurfaced emails and related reporting raise serious questions regarding the extent of the bank’s relationship with Epstein, and your knowledge of these ties,” she wrote.
A spokesperson for JPMorgan said: “Any association with the man was a mistake and we regret it, but we would not have continued doing business with him had we believed he was engaged in ongoing crimes. We exited him as a client in 2013 — years before his federal sex trafficking arrest and years after the government had damning information they kept from us.”
The bank also reiterated that Dimon never met Epstein and “was not involved in any decisions about his account”. Regarding conversations in the UK, Dimon “regularly speaks his mind on bad, anti-growth policy and has his own views”, it added. Any suggestion that Dimon spoke with Epstein or took counsel from him was false, the bank said.
Epstein was a client of JPMorgan’s private bank from 1998 until it cut ties with him in 2013. JPMorgan agreed in 2023 to pay $290mn to sexual abuse victims of Epstein who claimed the bank ignored warnings about the disgraced financier, although it did not admit wrongdoing or liability.
Jes Staley, the former JPMorgan investment banker who was later chief executive of Barclays, is separately facing questions from lawmakers over his links to the convicted sex offender.
The FT first reported earlier this year that Staley had agreed to appear on Capitol Hill on July 23 for a closed-door interview with the House oversight committee about his relationship with Epstein.
Dimon, who has been chief executive of JPMorgan since 2006, has previously said that he “never knew Jeff Epstein . . . never even heard of the guy, pretty much” before 2019.
However, emails between Epstein and Staley uncovered by lawyers several years ago appeared to show plans for Dimon to meet Epstein.
In June 2009, Epstein asked Staley via email if he “want[ed] to organize either you, or you and Jamie, quietly” at his Manhattan mansion on 71st Street.
Another email exchange from February 2010 showed Epstein and his assistant Lesley Groff discussing an apparent “evening appointment” with Dimon. Groff asked if snacks should be prepared “for your evening appointments with (redacted attendee), Jes Staley and Jamie Dimon?”
Credit: Source link
