Top JPMorgan executive Mary Erdoes could have dropped Jeffrey Epstein as a client if she had wanted to following his 2008 conviction for soliciting sex with a minor — but failed to do so, ex-JPMorgan executive Jes Staley testified in London court.
Staley — who admitted in explosive testimony a day earlier that he had sex with a member of Epstein’s staff — testified that Erdoes, chief executive of JPMorgan’s asset and wealth management division since 2009, had “full authority to remove Epstein as a client,” according to a Bloomberg report.
Staley is attempting to overturn a lifetime ban and $2.3 million fine from London’s financial regulators linked to his close relationship with Epstein.
On Thursday, Staley said he never stopped JPMorgan’s internal teams from investigating Epstein.
“Compliance and legal are required to do a full client review of a felon on an annual basis,” he said, adding that the bank should have been conducting reviews of Epstein after his 2008 conviction.
He claimed the private bank reported to Erdoes during that period.
“From 2008 the bank should have been doing a full review of Epstein as a client,” Staley said. “I was letting the bank’s legal and compliance do their job.”
JPMorgan cut ties with Epstein months after Staley — who went on to become chief executive of Barclays — left the bank in 2013, according to Bloomberg.
“Mary Erdoes and others exited him [Epstein] as a client six years before he was charged with human trafficking,” JPMorgan told The Post in a statement.
Epstein was charged with human trafficking in 2019. However, he also had pleaded guilty to charges of soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008 — five years before JPMorgan finally dropped him.
Despite his relationship with Epstein, Staley has claimed he was unaware of his “abhorrent” behavior. The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority has accused him of strongly misleading it about the nature of their friendship.
Erdoes reportedly turned to Epstein for help just six months after his 2008 guilty plea as the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme slammed the firm’s clients, according to court documents filed by the US Virgin Islands in its 2023 suit against JPMorgan, which has been settled.
She emailed Staley and asked him to call Epstein, the court documents said.
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