JPMorgan exec Erdoes sought tax advice from Epstein

JPMorgan manager Mary Callahan Erdos In 2005, the company sought advice from disgraced former financier Jeffrey Epstein on $600 million in tax matters, legal documents say.

Erdos, a veteran JPMorgan executive who became head of the bank’s asset and wealth management division in 2009, “personally sought” Epstein’s help to resolve the massive tax woes, according to court documents filed overnight by the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Erdos made the request on behalf of others, but that information has been redacted in the document.

“This was a request for introductions only, and Epstein had not been arrested or formally charged with any crime at the time,” a JPMorgan spokesman said in a statement Tuesday.

The new allegations about the bank’s years-long relationship with Epstein are part of a lawsuit by the U.S. territory accusing JPMorgan of facilitating the sex trafficking of the notorious former money manager. In August 2019, Epstein committed suicide in a Manhattan jail on child sex trafficking charges.

The U.S. Virgin Islands requested a partial summary judgment in its favor Monday night in court filings. JPMorgan also filed a partial summary judgment motion overnight.

The district alleges that Epstein was a “personal resource” for Erdos and her former boss at JPMorgan, Jess Staley, the two bankers who decided to keep Epstein as a client for years after Epstein was accused of paying underage girls to his home. In a deposition this year, Erdos admitted that JPMorgan knew about the allegations against Epstein in 2006.

It took years for the bank to decide to cut ties with Epstein, only doing so in 2013. JPMorgan agreed to pay $290 million to settle lawsuits by Epstein victims, but USVI lawsuits continue.

In 2008, following the revelations of Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, Erdos allegedly asked Staley to contact Epstein “to get the scoop from there,” according to the latest USVI court filings.

In response, JPMorgan issued this statement: “Jeffrey Epstein is in Florida, where many of Madoff’s victims reside. If she made any calls, it was to contact Jess to see if Epstein had more details about what happened there.”