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JPMorgan's Dimon questioned on whether he lobbied UK government on Epstein's advice

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has received a letter from Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren about whether he lobbied the UK government against a tax on bankers’ bonuses ​on the advice of Jeffrey Epstein, the Senate Banking Committee said on Monday (July 13).

The news follows the release ‌of a cache of documents earlier this year by the US Department of Justice that has piled pressure on some policymakers and high-profile executives on their links with the late convicted sex offender.

“It is critical that Congress ​and the American public fully understand the extent of any interactions the bank and ​you had with Epstein,” Warren, the top Democrat on the committee, said in the letter ⁠to Dimon.
The Financial Times was the first to report the news.

Earlier this year, the FT revealed, citing ​emails released by the DoJ, that in 2009, Lord Peter Mandelson, then Britain’s business secretary, told ​Epstein that Dimon should “mildly threaten” Alistair Darling, the chancellor at the time, over a proposed tax on banker bonuses.

JPMorgan told Reuters in a statement on Monday that Dimon “never met with him, never emailed him, and was not involved ​in any decisions about his account,” reiterating his 2023 deposition stance on the bank’s ​relationship with Epstein.

“On the matter of ‘lobbying’ in the UK – Jamie regularly speaks his mind on bad, anti-growth policy ‌and has ⁠his own views. At no point did he take counsel from him, directly or indirectly,” the bank said, referring to Epstein.

Epstein had been a JPMorgan client from 1998 until the bank terminated him in 2013, years after he pleaded guilty to prostitution-related charges. The largest US lender agreed to pay about $290 ​million to settle a ​class action lawsuit by ⁠Epstein’s victims in 2023.

“Any association with the man was a mistake, and we regret it, but we would not have continued doing business with ​him had we believed he was engaged in ongoing crimes,” JPMorgan said ​in the ⁠statement.

“We exited him as a client in 2013 — years before his federal sex trafficking arrest and years after the government had damning information they kept from us.”

Warren detailed questions and requested documents from Dimon and ⁠other ​JPMorgan employees detailing communications with Epstein and UK government officials.

“These resurfaced ​emails and related reporting raise serious questions regarding the extent of the bank’s relationship with Epstein, and your knowledge of ​these ties,” the letter said.