Bank of America Finally Embroiled In Jeffrey Epstein Scandal
The nature of the financial services provided by the late, unlamented pedophile Jeffrey Epstein has long been somewhat mysterious. Certainly, his billionaire buddies and the constellations of powerful bankers in orbit around him don’t like to talk about it much, either because they don’t know, or, well, you know….
In any event, one set of bankers that hasn’t really had to do any talking about the things Jeffrey Epstein was doing are the Bankers of America, a rare public relations win for Brian Moynihan that also seems like an embarrassing slight, which feels very BofA/BriMoy. That, however, is no longer the case. For while BofA may not have done any business with Jeff Epstein, they held some rather large accounts belonging to his picnic partner, Apollo Global Management founder Leon Black.
A Senate committee is looking into whether sex-trafficking on behalf of the former private-equity honcho isn’t the only crime Epstein allegedly committed for Black. And given that Epstein was, you know, a convicted sex offender long before he was an allegedly even more serious sex offender, the same committee wants to know why BofA didn’t think a $158 million wire transfer from Black’s accounts to Epstein didn’t raise a bit of red flag.
Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, sent the bank a letter asking about the extent of due diligence it conducted before processing $158 million in payments that Mr. Black made to Mr. Epstein from 2012 to 2017 for that tax work.
The letter also asked whether any bank employees had raised concerns about the purpose of those payments. They included fees paid to Mr. Epstein for advising on a sophisticated trust that saved Mr. Black more than $1 billion in taxes. Banks are required to file suspicious activity reports, or SARs, with financial regulators for any transaction they consider questionable….
Last summer the Senate committee announced that it was investigating the work Mr. Epstein did for Mr. Black as part of an examination of legal “tax dodging” schemes used by the ultrarich. The committee had said it wanted to learn more about Mr. Epstein’s “extraordinary compensation” package and the specific details of the tax avoidance strategies Mr. Epstein designed for Mr. Black.
A spokesman for Black claims that all the tax advice Epstein provided was all totally above-board, of course. Given the reputations of both men, we’re guessing Wyden & co. are gonna have a look-see anyway.
Lawmakers Question Bank of America About Leon Black’s Payments to Epstein [NYT]
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