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| Jeffrey Epstein hired accountants to help manage his financial life. In court documents, Harry Beller is all over his financial records. |
For more than two decades, Harry Beller was the discreet man behind the scenes who managed Jeffrey Epstein’s fortune — or at least well, most of it — and now investigators in Congress are expressing concern that his role could be central to understanding how the sex-trafficking operation ran itself through loopholes in the financial system. The paperwork is studded with Beller’s name: logbooks, corporate filings, checks, and cash withdrawal records linked to funds from Epstein at JPMorgan Chase & Co. (“JPMorgan”). So while Beller is not being accused of a crime, his actions and the bank’s reaction — or lack thereof — are now under heavy scrutiny.
Documents indicate that JPMorgan submitted several Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) beginning in 2002, reporting Beller’s frequent, hefty cash withdrawals of tens of thousands of dollars from Epstein’s accounts. Internal emails obtained by the investigators show bank officials raising questions in 2012 about a $100,000 cash withdrawal from a company affiliated with Epstein’s private jet. But the chain of warnings led nowhere. “Successful folks — they don’t do business in cash,” one former I.R.S. investigator told Truth Sider, “and banks know that.”
Now, Congress is adding fuel to the fire. Here are some key takeaways from Wyden’s 18-page memo on how JPMorgan reportedly underreported Epstein-related suspicious transactions by more than 300 times over the years. The bank, the report states, red-flagged about $4.3 million in problematic activity before 2019—and only after Epstein’s death filed so-called retroactive suspicious-activity reports on nearly $1.3 billion in suspicious flows from 2003–2019. Beller’s name is listed as a signatory on HBRK, which he co-managed with Epstein’s longtime accountant Richard Kahn, and which victim-litigation filings say was used to transfer funds, establish shell entities, and fund the trafficking network.
The stakes are enormous for JPMorgan. Now, with billions of transactions processed on Epstein's behalf, the bank is confronting new questions: Did the compliance department drop the ball? Then, was there awareness of this at the senior executive level that amounted to recklessness? Should the bank have severed its relationship sooner? JPMorgan said to Business Insider in a statement from its spokeswoman Patricia Wexler: “We would never have continued to do business with him if we believed he was using our bank in any way to help commit heinous crimes. But the millions already paid out in settlements, along with the sheer number of red flags, demand that Congress continue a comprehensive investigation.
The pressure is no less intense for Beller. He declined a request for further comment through his lawyer, invoking the Fifth Amendment in a 2024 deposition, according to court documents. Beller’s long relationship with Epstein, from about 1992 until roughly 2014, would position him at the heart of the financial spider web. Prosecutors say that his testimony could reveal how Epstein accumulated his wealth, oversaw his clandestine empire, and generated the billions that he used to negotiate immunity from federal prosecution.
Regulatory-wise, the case points to a severe failure: when ultrarich clients use private banking and shell companies to disguise cash flows, even standard screening mechanisms in the system — including those at a mega-bank — can break down. “It’s the first time around, or the second time, it doesn’t get looked at much.” When it becomes a habit, that’s where you’re like, That should be raising red flags.’”
At a time when financial transparency and bank culpability are under public pressure of one sort or another, this incident could be existential. From Beller’s long-standing position to JPMorgan’s compliance mistakes and Congress’s recent aggressive posture on disclosure, answers are coming. And that’s not just news — it could be fallout.
TLDR: Harry Beller, Epstein’s 22-year financial right-hand man, may have the answers to how a trafficking-based empire was able to operate in plain sight — and why a major bank initially raised alarms about it before turning its back. Now, Congress has much more challenging questions. The world is listening.
