The Clients
A Justice Department review found no incriminating “client list.” Here is who paid Epstein for financial work, who banked him, who took his gifts, and what each says
Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida in 2008 to two state charges, felony solicitation of prostitution and procurement of minors to engage in prostitution. In 2019 he was indicted on federal charges of sex trafficking of minors, and he died that year in a New York jail before trial. The Justice Department and FBI memo of July 2025 says its review “confirmed that Epstein harmed over one thousand victims. Each suffered unique trauma.” The same memo says the review “revealed no incriminating ‘client list.’” That is the government’s answer to a popular belief. This story asks a plainer question: who paid Epstein for financial work, who banked him, who took his gifts, and what does each say?
Every sum is the one a court, regulator, university or person gave, and the story says who counted. A dealing on the record shows that two parties met, paid or banked. By itself it shows neither knowledge of a crime nor a part in one. Most of this is not a court finding: a settlement decides nothing, and a senator’s report is one senator’s. Each person and body named gets their reply where one was found, and the story says where none was. Several documents were read only through reports of them: Dechert’s review for Apollo, Senator Wyden’s report, Goodwin Procter’s report for MIT, Harvard’s report and the House transcripts. The New York order on Deutsche Bank was read in part. Read up to 2 November 2026. The case of 2008 is in Palm Beach, the fight over the files in The Address Book, and the claim that he worked for a spy agency in Was He a Spy?.
Jun 2023
A survivor’s question. Courtney Wild, who was 14 when Epstein abused her, wrote to a JPMorgan executive in 2023: “As an adult, I am now learning how he was able to access an unlimited supply of cash in violation of banking laws.” Bank documents the Daily Beast cites show cash withdrawals of $40,000 to $80,000 several times a month, over $750,000 a year. A JPMorgan representative declined to comment on the letters. The bank’s public statement that June: “Any association with him was a mistake and we regret it.”
7 Jul 2025
No incriminating list. NPR reported that in February 2025 the Attorney General told Fox News that Epstein’s client list was “sitting on my desk right now to review.” The White House said she meant “the entirety of all the paperwork” on his crimes, and she later said she meant the files. The July memo found no incriminating list, no credible evidence that he blackmailed prominent people, and no evidence to open a case against uncharged third parties. That is the government’s account of its own review; it does not speak to money, and the money is on the record.
1985
Wexner hired him. Les Wexner, founder of the retailer L Brands, says he met Epstein in the mid-1980s and later hired him to manage his wealth, and at one point gave him power of attorney. In a 2019 letter, unsigned and undated in the copy CNN saw, he said Epstein had “misappropriated vast sums of money from me and my family”; no court ruling on that was found. Some Democrats on the committee pushed back on his account. CBS reported in February 2026 that he had not been charged; no later report of a charge was found.
26 Jun 2008
After the deal. Wexner says he cut ties in 2007 and never spoke to Epstein again. Justice Department records show a June 2008 email from Wexner to Epstein, after the plea deal was announced: “All I can say is I feel sorry.” His spokesperson says the 2007 date was when he fired Epstein as financial adviser, revoked the power of attorney and removed his name from the bank accounts. No reply from Wexner about that email was found.
25 Jan 2021
Leon Black. A review by the law firm Dechert for Apollo, the firm he co-founded, reported the payments and found Black was not involved in Epstein’s criminal activities. Reuters also reported two loans from Black to Epstein of $30.5 million in 2017, of which $20 million went unpaid. Black says he knew Epstein had pleaded guilty in 2008 and was told it was an isolated incident, and that he learned of the wider crimes in 2019. He said he “deeply” regretted his involvement, and stepped down as CEO.
16 Sep 2026
Black’s answer. On 26 June 2026 Black told the House Oversight Committee that Epstein deceived him: “I knew Jekyll. I didn’t know Hyde.” He said he paid for legitimate purposes, in part because of his “unrivaled network of relationships.” On 3 September he refused a sworn deposition and sued the committee over its subpoenas. On 16 September the House held him in contempt for defying them and referred the matter to the Justice Department, which decides whether to prosecute. That is not a finding about Epstein. His lawyers: he “had no knowledge of any of Epstein’s heinous conduct.” The sources read hold no ruling on his suit and no charge to 2 November.
Jan 2023
Black and the Virgin Islands. In exchange, CNN reported, the territory released Black from any current and future legal claims related to Epstein; $15 million goes to a trust fund for counseling and mental health services. His spokesman: “There is no suggestion in the USVI settlement that Mr. Black was aware of or participated in any misconduct.” The sources read do not say whether the settlement holds an admission. Separately, two women sued him in New York, each saying he abused her. He denied it; his lawyer called one complaint a “work of fiction.” One ended her suit in 2024. A judge sanctioned the other and her former lawyer in April 2026, then in October dismissed the suit at her request; she wrote that this was “not a concession concerning the truth of my allegations.” Neither reached a verdict.
3 Mar 2026
The senator’s count. Ron Wyden, the senior Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, began investigating Epstein’s finances in 2022. CNN reported the committee is looking at whether Black’s payments were part of a scheme to avoid over $1 billion in gift and estate taxes; Black’s spokesman said Black had fully paid all taxes. In March 2026 Wyden told the Senate that Black’s story of tax and estate work “is a sham.” Black’s attorney: the report is “politically motivated” and Wyden’s “assertions are outrageous and false.” The first two sums cover 2012 to 2017; the source for the $180 million gives no years.
4 Aug 2026
Looking the Other Way. Wyden’s report says JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank and Bank of America likely broke anti-money-laundering law, and that they flagged thousands of transactions only after Epstein’s 2019 arrest. JPMorgan “strongly disagrees” and says it began flagging transactions in 2002. Bank of America: “the bank did not facilitate wrongdoing.” Deutsche Bank: “The bank regrets our historical connection with Jeffrey Epstein.” Its statement does not take up the report.
26 Sep 2023
JPMorgan, 1998 to 2013. Epstein was a client for fifteen years, the last five after his guilty plea. In 2023 the bank agreed to pay $290 million to settle a class action by survivors, and $75 million to settle the Virgin Islands’ suit, which had accused it of turning “a blind eye to evidence of human trafficking”: $30 million to charities, $25 million for public safety, $20 million for lawyers’ fees. The bank did not admit wrongdoing in the second; Bloomberg’s source says the same of the first. Wyden says Epstein made 4,725 wire transfers worth over $1 billion through JPMorgan in the decade after 2003.
26 Jun 2025
The banker. Jes Staley ran JPMorgan’s private bank and was Epstein’s main contact there. JPMorgan sued him, accusing him of misleading it into keeping Epstein as a client; he denied it, and they settled in 2023 on undisclosed terms. In 2026 he told the House committee he had shared confidential bank information with Epstein, believing he could. The UK regulator found he approved a misleading letter about the relationship, and the tribunal agreed he acted recklessly and without integrity. That finding is about what he told the regulator, not about any crime; he says he was unaware of Epstein’s crimes. Staley: “disappointed by the outcome.”
7 Jul 2020
Deutsche Bank. Epstein banked there from August 2013 to December 2018, the regulator’s order says; American Banker says until his death. The regulator found the bank failed to monitor the accounts despite knowing his history: payments to individuals publicly alleged to have been his co-conspirators, over $7 million in settlement payments, over $6 million to law firms, and more than $800,000 in cash withdrawals over about four years. In 2023 the bank agreed to pay $75 million to settle a survivors’ suit; the sources read do not say what that admits. It says it regrets the connection.
27 Aug 2026
Bank of America. The survivors’ suit said the bank ignored suspicious transactions, among them payments to Epstein by Leon Black. The bank denies the claims. Black previously called the relationship “a horrible mistake” and any suggestion of involvement in Epstein’s conduct “categorically untrue.” The same plaintiffs’ claim against Bank of New York Mellon was dismissed because the complaint failed to “adequately” allege liability; that is a ruling on the complaint, not a clearance. The sources read hold no reply from that bank.
30 Nov 2022
The Virgin Islands. Epstein owned two islands in the territory. Its sex trafficking suit against his estate ended with $105 million and half the sale of Little St. James; in the same case the estate agreed to return more than $80 million in tax benefits that officials say Epstein and his co-defendants obtained fraudulently. The co-executors “deny any allegations of wrongdoing.” JPMorgan paid $75 million; its filings accused the territory of a “quid pro quo” relationship with Epstein, and the territory’s reply was not found. Black’s $62.5 million ended potential claims, “to avoid a possible lawsuit,” Reuters wrote; his spokesman says it suggests no knowledge of misconduct.
9 Aug 2021
The estate. A fund was set up to compensate survivors. Its administrator, Jordana Feldman, said it paid about $121 million to about 150 people. The estate’s lawyer later said 136. On 21 October 2026 New Mexico’s attorney general sued the estate’s two co-executors, Epstein’s former lawyer and accountant, seeking to stop them profiting “from the illegal activity that they enabled and furthered.” Survivor Anouska De Georgiou: “My abuse did not happen in isolation.” Their lawyer: they “emphatically reject” the allegations.
1 May 2020
Harvard. Harvard’s review found gifts from 1998 to 2007, among them $6.5 million in 2003 for a program in evolutionary dynamics, and none after his conviction. It named him a visiting fellow in 2005, found he lacked the usual qualifications, and counted more than 40 visits to that program’s offices from 2010 to 2018. Harvard gave $200,937 of his unspent gifts to two charities that support survivors. President Larry Bacow: the report “describes principled decision-making but also reveals institutional and individual shortcomings.”
10 Jan 2020
MIT. The report counted ten gifts totalling $850,000 from 2002 to 2017, nine of them after the conviction. It found no senior team member broke a law or MIT policy, and that MIT’s president did not know. Three vice presidents did know, from 2013, that he was a convicted sex offender, and allowed the gifts under an informal framework. It called the decision “collective and significant errors in judgment.” President Reif and the two academics who brought the gifts apologised to survivors. Epstein had claimed he arranged gifts from others; the report found no evidence to support that.
2011
A pitch that came to nothing. Gates says he met Epstein three times in 2011 and twice in 2012, after the plea, knowing the conviction was “of a sexual nature” but not that Epstein was a registered sex offender. He talked of giving structures in 2013 and 2014 and cut contact in December 2014: “No vehicle for charitable giving was ever created and no funds were raised.” He says Epstein tried to use personal information to pressure him back; it failed. He told the committee he was not blackmailed, but that emails raise “a serious probability that he contemplated blackmailing me.” The Gates Foundation says it never transferred funds to Epstein. Gates calls meeting him “a grave error in judgment.” PBS reported that no survivor had publicly accused him of wrongdoing.
3 Mar 2026
Where the money came from. The record shows Wexner hiring him, Black’s payments, Virgin Islands tax benefits and a will of more than $577 million. It does not show the whole source. Wyden calls his sum, which counts money moving through accounts, “inexplicably high based on what is currently known about Epstein’s sources of income.” Representative Robert Garcia, the committee’s top Democrat, said lawmakers know of over a billion dollars from Wexner to Epstein. No document for that sum appears in the sources read. Wexner’s account is that Epstein took money from his family.
2 Nov 2026
Still open. On 3 March 2026 Wyden asked the Senate to pass his bill to release Treasury’s bank reports on Epstein. He said the Biden Treasury let his staff review them in person and take notes, and that the present Treasury refused. Crapo objected, saying Treasury had agreed to give the House the files. Wyden: “I will believe it when I see it.” The sources read do not show whether Treasury gave them over by 2 November. Most of what is here is not a court finding, and a connection on this record is not evidence of wrongdoing.
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