The financial institution Deutsche Bank keeps coming up in criminal cases and it seems to be a pattern. They get in bed with potential criminals doing really suspicious things, turn a blind eye and then, when caught, feign complete and utter shock that something so awful was going on under their watchful eyes. So appears to be the case with Jeffrey Epstein.
The New York Times is reporting that they have recently found some "suspicious transactions" during which Epstein had moved money out of the United States. The Bank does state that it reported the transactions to the government, although it is unclear when they reported them. Was Epstein using the Bank as a means to funnel money for his sex trafficking crimes?
The sources of Epstein's vast portfolio is unclear and coming to a true determination of his wealth is difficult. Due to the inability to fully present his portfolio and fears about his ability to flee, he is being held without bond in New York pending his trial.
For it's part, Deutsche Bank states (as it always does) that it is “absolutely committed to cooperating with all relevant authorities.” Blah blah. Epstein has been a client of Deutsche Bank since at least 2013, the New York Times reports, so they had to have known about his history. They just chose to ignore it. The Bank continued to keep him as a client until the Miami Herald conducted an investigation into the previous charges. Oddly enough, the Bank reports that they had trouble fully shutting his accounts down because they have an "antiquated system" and he had numerous accounts that they didn't find (??). In fact, Epstein reportedly still had accounts open as of late spring 2019 with transactions occurring.
The Bank notes that they discovered at least one potentially illegal transaction from Epstein's account where money was moving out of the U.S. They allegedly filed a SAR report (suspicious activity report) but it is unclear whether that made it to the Treasury Department for investigation.
The Bank states that they now believe they have shut down all of Epsteins' accounts (eye roll emoji). Keep up the good work, Deutsche Bank!
