So what are we learning now about the involvement of major banks, such as Deutsche Bank, and particularly, JP Morgan which acquired Chase bank after the 2008 financial crash.
Jes Slaley worked closely with Epstein since 1998, and was still a close friend after the first conviction of J Epstein in 2008.
In the shadowy world of global finance, JP Morgan’s deep ties to Jeffrey Epstein have resurfaced with disturbing force. Newly unsealed documents, revealed in a New York Times investigation on 8 September 2025, exposed how the banking giant ignored red flags surrounding the convicted sex offender’s activities.
The report detailed a web of suspicious transactions worth over £717 million ($1.1 billion), some processed even after Epstein’s 2008 guilty plea for soliciting a minor. Executives like Jes Staley defended the disgraced financier despite internal warnings, prioritising profits from his estimated £130 million ($200 million) deposits. The scandal now casts a harsh spotlight on the bank’s role in enabling potential sex trafficking.
As victims seek justice, the revelations raise urgent questions about accountability in financial institutions entangled in Epstein’s crimes.
How JP Morgan Ignored Warnings After Epstein’s 2008 Conviction
JP Morgan maintained its relationship with Jeffrey Epstein for years after his conviction on 30 June 2008, processing thousands of transactions that raised alarms internally. Emails from senior executives, including then-general counsel Stephen Cutler, flagged concerns in October 2011: ‘This is not an honourable person in any way. He should not be a client.’ Still the bank continued to handle Epstein’s accounts until 2013.
During this period, Epstein held 134 accounts, generating millions in fees for the bank while wiring funds to Russian and Eastern European entities linked to young women. Compliance officers flagged Epstein’s frequent cash withdrawals as potential red flags for money laundering or worse. Yet decisions were often delayed, marked as ‘pending Dimon review‘, referring to CEO Jamie Dimon, who later claimed ignorance until 2019.
It was only after Epstein’s arrest on 6 July 2019 that JP Morgan retroactively reported 4,700 suspicious transactions to regulators, underscoring a failure in oversight that enabled the sex trafficking network. Victims’ advocates argue this reflects a broader banking scandal where profit trumped ethics.
Key Executives Defended Epstein Despite Sex Trafficking Red Flags
Jes Staley, then head of JP Morgan’s private bank, emerged as Epstein’s staunchest ally. He visited Epstein’s properties like Zorro Ranch during house arrest and emailed in 2009, ‘I owe you much‘. Staley also introduced Epstein to high-profile clients like Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who later deposited over £2.6 billion ($4 billion), boosting the bank’s revenue.
Even as reports of Epstein’s abuses surfaced, Staley continued to advocate for maintaining the ties, reportedly saying he would ‘trust Epstein with his daughters‘. Jamie Dimon testified he had no recollection of Epstein as a client until 2019, despite emails suggesting his involvement in account decisions.
This executive defence has drawn sharp criticism. Law professor Bridgette Carr warned that ‘I am deeply worried here that the ultimate message to other financial institutions is that they can keep serving traffickers’. Notably, no executives lost their jobs over the scandal.
Massive Settlements and Revelations in Epstein Banking Ties
In June 2023, JP Morgan agreed to a settlement of £189 million ($290 million) with nearly 200 victims, admitting no wrongdoing but regretting the association. This was followed by a £49 million ($75 million) payout to the US Virgin Islands in September 2023.
The bank’s statement read, ‘In hindsight we regret it, but we did not help him commit his heinous crimes. We would never have continued to do business with him if we believed he was engaged in an ongoing sex trafficking operation.’ These payouts total over £238 million ($365 million), yet no regulatory actions ensued.
The New York Times exposé, drawing from 13,000 pages of records, detailed how Epstein brokered JP Morgan’s £846 million ($1.3 billion) acquisition of Highbridge Capital, earning £9.8 million ($15 million) in fees.
On 8 September 2025, X user @davidenrich posted: ‘How JPMorgan Enabled the Crimes of Jeffrey Epstein,’ linking to the article and sparking discussions on banking ethics.
In the arid hills outside of Stanley, New Mexico, about 30 miles southeast of Santa Fe, sits one of the most mysterious and unsearched pieces of real estate in the United States: Zorro Ranch. Spanning over 10,000 acres, complete with a 26,000-square-foot mansion, guest homes, stables, a private airstrip, a firehouse, and a rail line, this fortress of stone and secrecy was once owned by Jeffrey Epstein — the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender at the center of the most notorious trafficking scandal in modern American history.
Epstein acquired Zorro Ranch in 1993, reportedly from the family of former New Mexico Governor Bruce King, for roughly $12 million. But what’s perhaps more telling than the sale is how Epstein expanded it. Nestled within the private holdings were an additional 1,243 acres of state trust land, leased to Epstein’s shell company Cypress Inc. for agricultural use. Except… no agriculture ever happened there. No livestock. No crops. Just seclusion.
The leases remained active until 2016, and despite Epstein’s 2008 felony conviction, no one in the state questioned his continued use of public land. In fact, in 2010, Epstein was briefly added to New Mexico’s sex offender registry — only to be removed two days later. Why? Because his victim in Florida was 17, and New Mexico law only required registration for offenses involving victims under 16. A loophole, or a lifeline?
Meanwhile, the ranch itself evolved into more than just a luxury estate. It became, according to survivor accounts, a key node in Epstein’s trafficking network.
From 2013 to 2018, Deutsche Bank opened more than 40 accounts for the financier—after JPMorgan Chase had severed its ties with Epstein, New York Department of Financial Services investigators found and the two civil complaints claim. For the next five years, the bank processed millions in allegedly suspicious transactions tied to Epstein’s web of trusts, including payments to women described as “tuition fees” and large cash withdrawals structured to avoid reporting requirements. When New York regulators finally investigated, they called the bank’s conduct “inexcusably” deficient. In 2023, Deutsche Bank agreed to pay $75 million to Epstein’s victims in a class action settlement. The bank was also fined $150 million by the New York Department of Financial Services for its involvement with Epstein.
Jes Slaley emails are presented by Ellie Leonard on Panicked, Substack yesterday. Here is a 2008 extract:
9/29/2008
JS: I hope you keep the island. We all may need to live there.
10/10/2008
JS: I am dealing with the Fed on an idea to solve things. I need a smart friend to help me think through this stuff. Can I get you out for a weekend to help me (are they listening?).
10/10/2008
[Staley forwards Epstein a term sheet that was sent to others at the Treasury/Fed]
11/9/2008
JS: My one exposure is if Glenn slips. He has to stay correct, and show calmness.
12/30/2008
JE: sunday will not work for me. everyone is gone except the housekeepers, you are more than welcome to use the house. you will be well looked after. The chef from paris is there.
JS: I think I will head back. If something changes, let me know. Otherwise I’ve asked Rosa to make a date free in early January for me to visit the Palm Beach office and spend some time with you.
Delivering teens:
What Mar-a-Lago Really Was
Mar-a-Lago, at least the spa, wasn’t just a luxury resort. It was a filter for young, inexperienced girls — curated for appearance, not skill — in a place frequented by powerful men, including Epstein.
Whether Trump enabled Epstein by design or by indifference, the effect was the same: Giuffre was recruited there, and she wasn’t the only one.
Now, after years of evasions, Trump admits Epstein “stole” girls from his club. But the more we learn, the clearer it becomes: the girls weren’t stolen. They were delivered.
Jeffrey Epstein purchased Little St James in 1998 and then covertly purchased Great Saint James in 2016, after he was a registered sex offender
Epstein’s second island, Great St. James, has all but been erased from the narrative. But survivors remember it. Virginia Giuffre wrote about it in her unpublished memoir (the one Jeffrey Epstein’s estate had a copy of) so I chased the leads no one else touched—and here’s what they never reported.
Little St James, years after it was cleaned by his estate and “raided” by FBI. Both islands sold in 2023 to billionaire Stephen Deckoff
In order to understand the operations of Jeffrey Epstein and the network that empowered him, I need you to stop looking at the island they won’t shut up about.
It’s a distraction.
This isn’t to say nothing happened on Little Saint James.
I understand that survivors have given harrowing accounts of being trapped there.
It’s true.
A 15-year-old once attempted to escape by swimming off the island, only to be found by Epstein’s “people” and dragged back.
“I was prepared to die swimming and trying to escape off that island that night. And there was another occasion when, you know, I didn’t respond to Jeffrey. And I was walking along. And his car pulled up next to me. I was forced into his car, taken to his mansion and raped. He knew exactly where I was, survivor Sarah Ransome remembered.
Many survivors were teenagers when they were targeted and groomed. They describe being trained to be sexually compliant, to bathe and prepare men, to massage them, to tolerate whatever was demanded of them, no matter how gut-wrenching or degrading. Virginia Guiffre wrote that while trapped in Epstein’s network, she was “passed around like a platter of fruit,” to Epstein’s powerful friends and associates.
Epstein and four survivors who were teens from Palm Beach High School when targeted and trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell
Little Saint James island was scrubbed by Epstein’s handlers years before the FBI ever stepped foot on it. Across time and properties: there was a cleanup effort ahead of law enforcement searches.
Little St James resort area, closed up and cleared out. It has remained unchanged despite sale in 2023
Epstein was surrounded by enablers and handlers who kept his operation running and cleaned up after him.
The same way Epstein’s fixers could sweep his properties of evidence overnight, the properties themselves were built like sets — curated, controlled environments engineered for operations, leverage and psychological control over the people being moved through them.
All of Epstein’s properties were equipped with shower and steam rooms made of marble, complete with benches. Survivors recount being teens ordered to sit in the floor of the shower to massage, bathe, groom and sexually please Epstein and others
Little Saint James was multi-purpose as the property itself was used to condition girls and host the “elite,” (it was also a helicopter jumping point to Great Saint James, for Epstein and VIPs.)
The cow statue and faux temple kept the world looking exactly where Epstein wanted them looking. In the wrong direction.
The real story is what may have been happening on the other island — the island almost no one talks about. The island only a select few were ferried to by helicopter, lifted from Little St. James and dropped onto a makeshift helipad at Balmar Point on Great Saint James.
Survivor Virginia Giuffre remembers that hop.
She says she was flown there with Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell — with Maxwell at the controls. Ghislaine was reportedly still learning to fly, and the short trip between the islands doubled as her practice route.
Great Saint James barely appears in search results online, refuses to load cleanly on satellite, and is almost entirely absent from the public narrative.
Great Saint James development
This is the island they didn’t want you looking at.
There is much more to this construction than what meets the eye.
What’s on the surface is almost meaningless once you compare it to the plans.
The island has underwater utilities carved into the coastline, a solar array big enough to power something far larger than a cottage, and a structure described—casually, almost innocently—as a “pool and underwater office.”
We don’t know the full footprint of that “office” or its use.
But from looking at the (low quality) satellite imagery: whatever it is, it likely lives beneath that deceptively small “pool” with a thick concrete base. This is likely an entry point to an underground facility of some kind.
“Pool” on Great Saint John. Possible entry point to underground facility.
The Shell Game Acquisition
Great St. James was acquired in 2016 through a shell structure designed to conceal true ownership. The community didn’t want Epstein (by then, a convicted sex offender) to own it. Residents protested. Local officials hesitated. But the purchase went through anyway. Strangely, under a name that wasn’t his. He used the name of an associate and Dubai businessman Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem.
Epstein, Sulayem
This wasn’t a simple real-estate purchase. It was engineered with intent over time.
The transaction ultimately go through Great St. Jim LLC, a shell entity designed for one purpose: separation. There were other shells involved with Great Saint James and the activities there, including one for Epstein’s private planes and helicopters.
It wasn’t that Epstein wanted or needed financial privacy.
It was about Epstein creating and maintaining operational distance.
The moment the sale cleared, construction began—despite the fact that he had no permits for anything beyond a flagpole and cistern repair.
Equipment arrived by barge.
Heavy machinery was staged on the shoreline. Roads were cut. Concrete footings appeared. A dock installed.
Underwater utilities, solar construction, and trenches were dug.
Regulators and inspectors were denied access. Epstein would not allow them on the island to conduct routine site visits and inspect what they said was “unpermitted and potentially damaging construction activity on Great St. James,” according to a law suit filed by the Virgin Islands.
Instead, Epstein and his “enterprise” would meet inspectors at the dock and said the visits were “invasions” of his right to privacy in his home – which he defined as the entire island.
Everything about Epstein’s acquisition of Great St James and the construction and use of the facilities there was handled like a strategic site takeover for secret research or illegal activities.
Development on Great Saint James
THE PART THEY TRIED TO BURY
Once you understand the shell structure that delivered Great St. James into Epstein’s hands, the next question is obvious:
Why go to such lengths unless the island was meant to operate outside of view?
That’s when the patterns begin to surface.
Not long after he was cited for illegal removal of protected colonial-era structures—he continued bulldozing anyway.
Authorities ordered him to repair the environmental damage on Great St. James, acknowledging publicly that historically significant structures had been destroyed.
But even that violation was handled quietly, folded into a paperwork shuffle that never made national headlines.
Epstein and his powerful network found a remote location to operate—one without much jurisdictional oversight or government power. A completely controlled location where they could transport girls and young women to be enslaved, raped, abused and possibly worse.
Balmar Point on Great Saint James, ideal for helicopter landing site
THE ISLAND THE INTERNET ERASED
Great St. James kept showing up strangely in public satellite tools—it was never updated, then I noticed misaligned labels, distorted edges, partial renders, tiles that refused to load.
Most people probably brushed it off as a glitch.
But the “glitches” only appeared on that island. The one that was mid-construction, receiving illegal utilities, and tied to a shell network built for anonymity.
Glitches may not be proof. But patterns are.
And every pattern pointed to an island that was undergoing far more development than the public narrative ever acknowledged, and survivors remember being taken there.
THE LOCAL REPORTING THAT DISAPPEARED
In April 2019, a local reporter in the Virgin Islands finally started publicly asking the questions residents had been asking for years:
Why is construction happening out there?
Who is building?
Where are the permits?
Why won’t DPNR release the documents?
Her story ran in the Virgin Islands Daily News. But now it’s gone—scrubbed from public access, removed from search, and unarchived.
Not even the Wayback Machine captured it.
This story is now missing from the internet
Reporting doesn’t vanish unless someone wants the questions to vanish with it.
THE RAID THAT WASN’T
When the FBI performed their “raid” on Epstein’s property in 2019, it was Little St. James that got the cameras—the dramatic boat landings, the agents in jackets, the boxes carried out.
FBI on Little St James in 2019
But eyewitnesses described agents (or people dressed like them) riding around in golf carts, emptying buildings and tossing items into dumpsters.
It looked more like a clean-out than a search.
Men in FBI shirts on golf carts on Little St John, as seen by boaters passing by in 2019
And Great St. James?
Nothing. No raid. No footage. No documentation. No mention.
An island with illegal construction, destroyed historical structures, underwater utilities, concealed infrastructure, an underwater structure and a shell-company acquisition was treated like it didn’t exist.
This isn’t oversight. Why hasn’t anyone demanded a proper investigation and search?
Ask yourself who benefits from the silence about Great St James and what may have happened there.
THE QUESTION THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING
Once you put the pieces together:
the shell acquisition, the bulldozed historical ruins, the underwater utility lines, the compound-level solar infrastructure, the misfiled satellite images, the vanished reporting, the staged half-raids, the survivor accounts of “the bigger island,” and the fact that construction continued until at least 2019 the question stops being “What happened on Great St. James?”
and becomes: Why did every official narrative work so hard to leave it out?
Because that’s where the story breaks open.
It was never about a temple or a single “pedo island.”
It was the network’s infrastructure for sale, so the buyer had to be predetermined in order to protect their common interests.
THE ISLAND NEVER LEFT THE NETWORK
When Epstein died, Great St. James didn’t fall into the hands of a neutral third party.
Great St James in US Virgin Islands
There was a public real estate listing for both islands, but it included no details about existing construction nor any photos or renderings of Great Saint James.
And then, it was purchased by Stephen Deckoff — a billionaire who comes out of the exact same Wall Street pipeline that produced Jeffrey Epstein.
Both Epstein and Deckoff built their early careers at Bear Stearns, under the same culture of structured finance, opaque vehicles, and complex offshore asset architectures.
Deckoff wasn’t a random buyer.
He was a Managing Director in Bear Stearns’ Structured Finance Group. The same department where Epstein rose, protected by the same mentor “Ace” Greenberg.
You don’t need a conspiracy to see the pattern.
You just need to understand how networks maintain and protect themselves.
The islands stayed inside the same ecosystem that built and placed Epstein, then protected him, and continue to profit from him.
Deckoff founded Black Diamond Capital Management in 1995 — an “alternative asset” firm, meaning private, opaque, aggressively structured, offshore-friendly.
In other words, the exact kind of entity that could take over Great St. James without ever exposing what Epstein was actually building there.
Deckoff also relocated to the Virgin Islands with his family around this time.
When he bought the islands for less than half the original asking price, Deckoff announced he was turning them into a luxury 25-room resort with villas, pools, and a bathhouse.
Except, no permits have been filed for construction, no environmental reviews were initiated for either island and no zoning applications seem to exist. There have been no signs that construction has begun and no public updates have ever been issued, beyond the announcement that the new resort would be open in 2025.
The resort never existed.
The plan never moved. Despite Deckoff telling reporters he was sourcing architects at time of purchase.
The island simply stayed under private, tightly controlled ownership inside the same financial ecosystem it had always belonged to. Boaters and locals say the islands appear to have little to no activity, aside from armed security guards on ATV’s who reportedly patrol the islands permitters.
The name on the deeds changed.
The network didn’t.
Great St. James didn’t disappear into justice. It wasn’t sold and the proceeds distributed to survivors.
Published: Dec 19, 2025, 22:14 IST | Updated: Dec 19, 2025, 22:14 IST
Before taking over global ports, Sulayem was the man who literally changed the map of the world. He established and led Nakheel, the real estate giant behind the Palm Islands (Palm Jumeirah) and “The World” islands. These artificial archipelagos are iconic symbols of Dubai’s wealth.
More from Ellie Leonard (Panicked, Substack) as she works through released emails of Slaley and Epstein, here Sultan (see above) is often mentioned:
2/5/2011
JE:[forwards e-mail from Larry Summers to Staley] What is the real story on madoff? Shouldn’t jpm have known better? If they had no obligation to figure it out why should people private bank w them?
JS: I can’t reply in email. Will call.
JS: Like taking financial advice from the guy who single handedly created the biggest loss in the Harvard Endowment’s history.
JE: donor advised fund. 1. You could tie it initially just to the gates program,, minimum gift. 100 million. It could then be opened up later. IT will be the largest foundation in the world. You need an advisroy board for 1. investments. 2. distribution. you will need an amministration, mirroring a mutual fund. 4. tax compliance dept. Dedicated to the operation. IT will underpin a trust and estate. dept, the size of which will be enormous, 5. I would suggest, an irs auditor full time on site. 6, as a DAF [donor advised fund], you will be able to take in funky assets. (sub s, closely held c’s, art,) valuation services..sale and mgmt of 144 stock_). done right its 100 billion dollars in 2 years. the tension is making money from a Charitable Org. therefore the money making parts need to be arms length. salaries are disclosable and closely watched. Farming the investments to a highbridge is no brainer, but must be done with airtight options and reviewed by committees. I thought of University Heads. Foundation Chairs, for the boards. It will be the most sort after board in the country.
And right now, the network continues unabated.
In Sudan, the UAE continues to back the vicious RSF who are slaughtering civilians at every opportunity, thus gaining land grabs and extending power in the region:
Now, he seeks to repeat history. In early 2025, the United States government formally accused the Rapid Support Forces of committing genocide in Sudan. The consequences? The paramilitary group, its leaders, and RSF-owned businesses in the United Arab Emirates were formally sanctioned. However, this condemnation of RSF involvement in the UAE ignores how the Emirati government actively seeks it out, despite denying the allegations of funding. The relationship between the UAE and the RSF is neither nonexistent nor parasitic; both sides view it as a partnership.
The linkages between the Rapid Support Forces and the United Arab Emirates indicate Abu Dhabi intends to capitalize on the growing instability in Sudan. Since the beginning of the conflict, Emirati passports, bombs, and military hardware have been coincidentally discovered or intercepted in RSF-controlled Sudan, causing Sudan to accuse their former ally of funding genocide within its borders. The United States deemed these allegations factual after Senator Chris Van Hollen and Representative Sarah Jacobs confirmed that the UAE government directly transmitted weaponry and military aid to the paramilitary group, contrary to what Abu Dhabi told Washington.
The UAE’s support of the RSF is motivated by a desire to extract raw materials, namely agricultural crops and precious metals, from the prosperous Sudanese land. The current Sudanese government, the primary opposition to the RSF, has rejected multiple agricultural and land agreements with the United Arab Emirates due to exploitative and unfair terms that yield substantial profits for the Emirati government while providing little protection for local workers and landowners. The Rapid Support Forces, thus, signify a new opportunity for Abu Dhabi to solidify its influence and extend its reach further into the region
In May, the UAE’s ruling family deposited $2 billion into the crypto fund cofounded by Eric and Donald Trump, Jr. with, among others, the Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff’s fresh-faced son, Zach and a fourth Musketeer Zak Folkman, who used to run a company called Date Hotter Girls, —and lo!—two weeks later, the White House gave the UAE access to a payload of the world’s most advanced and scarce AI computer chips, despite national security concerns that they might be shared with our biggest adversary, China. A NYT investigation described the transaction as “eviscerating the boundary between private enterprise and government policy in a manner without precedent in modern American history.”
And lest we forget, prior to UAE supporting RSF, it was Russia:
Exclusive: Evidence emerges of Russia’s Wagner arming militia leader battling Sudan’s army
Retired, living in the Scottish Borders after living most of my life in cities in England. I can now indulge my interest in all aspects of living close to nature in a wild landscape. I live on what was once the Iapetus Ocean which took millions of years to travel from the Southern Hemisphere to here in the Northern Hemisphere. That set me thinking and questioning and seeking answers.
In 1998 I co-wrote Millennium Countdown (US)/ A Business Guide to the Year 2000 (UK) see https://www.abebooks.co.uk/products/isbn/9780749427917
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