Donald Trump and convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein both had connections to alleged money laundering during their long association, according to a new court filing and congressional report.
Rep. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat and Senate Finance Committee member, released a detailed report today (Aug. 8) outlining Epstein’s connection to Deutsche Bank in Germany where Trump also had extensive business dealings.
Seperately, credit card company Capital One revealed in a court filing that it closed 335 accounts held by Trump or his business entities in 2021 after inhouse invesitgators raised red flags pointing to money laundering.
More Reading: Trump Tied to Rogue German Bank Accused of Laundering Russian Money
Capital One made the filing in a motion to dismiss a Trump Organization lawsuit over the bank account closures. Trump alleged in the lawsuit Trump family businesses were “debanked” in retaliation for the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
In a motion to dismiss the case filed Friday in a Florida federal court, Capital One’s lawyers wrote that the bank’s own filings and the Trump businesses’ allegations “make clear that Capital One closed Plaintiffs’ accounts for anti-money laundering (‘AML’) reasons.”
The bank said the decision followed “months of analysis and a careful review” by its financial-crimes team, which it said was staffed by employees with “decades of law enforcement experience,” according to NPR.
In 2017, The New York Independent reported that Trump and family members had deep ties to Deutsche Bank. At the time, the U.S. Justice Department was investigating the bank for laundering Russian money.
Germany’s largest bank loaned Trump, family members and/or The Trump Organization more than $300 million. The loans were made at a time when no other United States bank would lend Trump money, following six major bankruptcies tied to the collapse of his Atlantic City casinos.
The loans for real estate projects were made under “unusual circumstances,” according to bankers with knowledge of the transactions.
Ivanka Trump, her husband, Jared Kushner and Kushner’s mother, Seryl Stadtmauer, also had accounts at the time, at the German bank, European newspapers reported.
The New York Department of Financial Services fined Deutsche Bank $425 million for laundering at least $10 billion of Russian money through its Moscow branch.
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority also imposed a £163 million pound fine, its largest ever.
Wyden’s 67-page report found that Deutsche Bank had failed to promptly report more than $250 million in suspicious transactions tied to Epstein. Some of the money allegedly was used to pay Russian and other Eastern European women.
He also paid his convicted co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell more than $30 million through these transactions.
Epstein-related $170 million in transactions at Bank of America Corp. to billionaire Leon Black were also found to have “no apparent economic, business or lawful purpose.” The bank reported the transactions to U.S. banking authorities long after they took place.
Black has claimed the payments were for legitimate estate and tax planning, and has denied knowing about Epstein’s sex trafficking operation.
More Reading: Donald Trump Could be Linked to Putin Money Laundering Through Denmark Bank
Wyden revealed that his investigation was only possible because he was able to review private records US Treasury Department records, but even then, he says his access was limited. He chastized Republicans for failing to look into the matter.
JPMorgan’s suspicious activities reports were unsealed last year by a federal judge as part of litigation over the bank’s relationship with Epstein.
The filings revealed that JPMorgan ultimately identified more than $1 billion in transactions as suspicious, including large cash withdrawals, payments to women and transfers to individuals and entities in multiple countries.
The bank ended its relationship with Epstein in 2013. He switched his accounts to Deutsche Bank after that. JPMorgan only reported the transactions after Epstein’s 2019 indictment for sex trafficking.
“The Department of Justice, Treasury Department, Federal Reserve and Comptroller of the Currency must conduct thorough investigations of the activities laid out in this report and levy fines or criminal penalties, as appropriate,” the report said, according to an advance copy obtained by Bloomberg.
“These investigations should include an examination of the conduct of individual bankers involved in the handling of transactions through Epstein’s accounts.”
Banks are required to notify the U.S. Treasury’s criminal division of suspicious transactions within 60 days,” according to federal law.
The banks ultimately filed notices almost exclusively after the fact, after Epstein was arrested on federal sex-trafficking charges in July 2019, the report states.
For the first time, Wyden also revealed Epstein associates — attorney Darren Indyke and accountants Richard Kahn and Harry Beller — were involved in the transactions. None of the associates has ever been questioned by federal investigators. The individuals have denied any involvement in sex trafficking.
“At Epstein’s direction, these three individuals executed thousands of suspicious cash withdrawals and wire transfers, potentially in furtherance of human trafficking,” the report stated.
“Wall Street banks have been willing to turn a blind eye to the suspicious transactions of ultra-wealthy clients, even if the failure to scrutinize and report these transactions runs directly afoul of federal law,” the report said.
“If federal prosecutors are serious about preventing the next Jeffrey Epstein, they must hold Wall Street accountable.”
Click this link to obtain Wyden’s report for free: “Looking the Other Way: How Wall Street Banks Enabled Jeffrey Epstein’s Sex Trafficking”
Keith Girard has four decades of experience as an award-winning reporter, editor-in-chief, and senior media executive. Keith’s career began in Washington, D.C., where he was a reporter for The Washington Post and a contributing editor for Regardie’s and Washingtonian magazines. He also worked as a writer/producer in CNN’s Washington Bureau and has written non-fiction books on the U.S. Marines in the Gulf War and Donald Trump and two novels, “The Heidelberg Conundrum” and “The Curse of Northam Bay.”
