Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier charged with sex trafficking of teenage girls this month, had close personal relationships with some of Wall Street’s most powerful executives, according to The New York Times.
Epstein “managed to affix himself to a handful of prominent Wall Street veterans,” the Times reported. He “funneled dozens of wealthy clients” to James “Jes” Staley, a former JPMorgan executive who is now CEO of Barclays, the newspaper said.
Epstein provided tax and estate-planning services to Leon Black, head of private-equity titan Apollo Global Management, despite lacking expertise in those fields. He also invested millions with Glenn Dubin, co-founder of Highbridge Capital Management, one of America’s largest hedge funds.
Epstein was a client of JPMorgan’s private bank, which was run by Staley in the late 1990s. He referred wealthy people to Staley, who converted dozens of them into clients. Epstein also connected Staley with Dubin, laying the groundwork for JPMorgan’s purchase of a majority stake in Highbridge in 2004, and Dubin and his co-founder becoming JPMorgan employees, the Times reported.
Staley and JPMorgan continued to work with Epstein for years after he pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor — a period during which he oversaw an elaborate sex trafficking operation, according to prosecutors. For example, Staley visited Epstein at his Palm Beach office while he was serving his 13-month sentence, the Times reported. JPMorgan only cut ties with Epstein around 2013, when Staley left the bank and Epstein stopped being a client. – READ MORE