Senate report says major banks ignored Epstein alerts

A major Senate report released on Tuesday, August 4, 2026, alleges that three of the world's largest banks failed for years to properly report suspicious financial activity by the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, enabling his sex trafficking operation. The report, the result of a four-year investigation led by Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, calls for federal regulators to probe JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Deutsche Bank for potential violations of anti-money laundering laws.

The report, titled "Looking the Other Way," alleges the banks processed more than $1 billion in suspicious wire transfers for Epstein, often without timely reporting to the U.S. Treasury Department as required by law. It states that bankers were aware of questionable transactions as early as 2002 but, in most cases, did not file the required Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) until after Epstein's arrest on federal sex trafficking charges in 2019. This delay, the report contends, allowed Epstein to freely move hundreds of millions of dollars globally to pay victims and associates.

Specifically, the investigation alleges Bank of America failed to properly screen and report $170 million in...