Jeffrey Epstein received over $300 MILLION in tax breaks from the US Virgin Islands

JPMorgan Chase said the U.S. Virgin Islands gave Jeffrey Epstein more than $300 million in tax breaks and waived sex offender monitoring requirements to protect the disgraced deceased financier as he gave money and gifts to top officials and the local community. Police.

In a lawsuit on Tuesday, the largest US bank described how Epstein allegedly paid law enforcement agencies such as the Virgin Islands Police Department.

The new unredacted filing is part of JPMorgan’s effort to show that the U.S. Virgin Islands, including former first lady Cecile de Jongh, “actively facilitated” Epstein’s sexual abuse of young women and teenage girls.

JPMorgan is defending in federal court against the territory’s lawsuit filed in December over its relationship with Epstein, a client from 1998 to 2013.

The US Virgin Islands, where Epstein owned two neighboring islands, have accused JPMorgan of facilitating Epstein’s crimes by providing banking services and enabling him to pay victims.

“JPMorgan Chase is the only party to this lawsuit that had real-time knowledge of Jeffrey Epstein’s human trafficking operation,” Venetia Velazquez, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General, said in a statement.

“The evidence that has been revealed so far suggests that the bank chose to prioritize its profits over protecting victims.”

The U.S. Virgin Islands Police Department said they “never received a single complaint” about Epstein’s sex trafficking and would be investigating complaints, a person familiar with law enforcement practices in the area said. The person did not have the authority to discuss those practices publicly.

JPMorgan last week agreed to pay $290 million to settle a lawsuit by dozens of Epstein accusers, pending court approval.

Epstein died by suicide at the age of 66 in a Manhattan jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

JPMorgan had described a “quid pro quo” relationship between Epstein and U.S. Virgin Islands officials such as de Jongh, whose husband, John, served as governor from 2007 to 2015.

The bank has said that Cecile de Jongh ran Epstein’s local businesses for eight years and helped arrange visas for some of the victims in return for providing her children with a salary, bonuses and tuition for her schools.

Tuesday’s filing detailed that Epstein’s Financial Trust Co, also known as Southern Trust Co, received $219.8 million in tax breaks from the U.S. Virgin Islands between 1999 and 2012, and $80.6 million between 2013 and 2018.

In connection with some benefits, the bank said Cecile de Jongh stated in 2009 that Epstein was a “bona fide resident,” despite then serving a 13-month prison sentence following his 2008 guilty plea to a prostitution charge in Florida.

JPMorgan also said the area was waiving restrictions on Epstein’s ability to travel, despite his sex offender status.

It said the area’s Justice Department failed to provide timely notice of Epstein’s status under the Sex Offender Registration and Reporting Act on multiple occasions, “something Epstein even raised personally with the USVI DOJ.”

The bank also said that “often Epstein was not present” when the territory checked on his home.

JPMorgan’s latest disclosures followed Monday’s release by the U.S. Virgin Islands of a 22-page document prepared by the bank in late 2019 following Epstein’s death.

The document detailed Epstein’s ties to former JPMorgan private banking chief Jes Staley, including dozens of personal messages between them and messages involving other bank officials.

JPMorgan has sued Staley and wants him held liable for damages it may owe in plaintiffs and the U.S. Virgin Islands lawsuits.

Staley left JPMorgan in 2013 and later served as CEO of Barclays for six years.

He has expressed regret for his friendship with Epstein and has repeatedly denied knowing about his crimes.

Internal emails reveal that following Epstein’s July 2019 arrest on sex trafficking charges, JPMorgan conducted an internal review known as “Project Jeep” and is looking into the bank’s relationship with Epstein.

The review included emails between Epstein and Staley, a former friend and JPMorgan private banking chief who has tried to blame the bank for its client relationship with Epstein.

In a July 2019 email, Peter Neilson, JPMorgan’s chief of financial crimes, wrote that he was working on the review with input from “top of house,” which Virgin Islands attorneys say is a reference to Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan.

‘Top of house asked us to expand our analysis to related parties and compile slides. Should be in a few days. We are treating it as a project at this point,” Neilson wrote in the email.

Epstein was a client of JPMorgan from 1998 until the bank fired him in 2013, years after he was convicted of soliciting a minor for sex in a Florida state case.

In a May 26 statement, Dimon said he never met Epstein, had no recollection of discussing his accounts internally, and barely knew who Epstein was prior to the July 2019 arrest.

The U.S. Virgin Islands wanted Dimon to sit for a second statement after additional documents on Epstein and Staley surfaced, including the emails cited in the newly unsealed letter.

However, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff, who oversees the trial, denied that request for a second statement.

JPMorgan declined to comment when reached by DailyMail.com on Tuesday. The bank has previously denied any wrongdoing, but said it regretted taking on Epstein as a client.