Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, and Rep. Robert Garcia, D-CA, introduced legislation Thursday that would require federal financial regulators to publicly disclose supervisory records, including internal communication, concerning late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his associates.
The legislation would also compel agencies such as the Federal Reserve, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate Epstein-connected banks and executives.
Senior executives could be banned from the banking industry, fined or referred to the Justice Department for possible criminal prosecution, according to the legislation.
Warren had expressed dissatisfaction with answers she received from regulators this year as to whether agencies had opened investigations into various banks’ connections to Epstein.
“I cannot confirm the existence of or otherwise comment on specific investigations,” Michelle Bowman, the Fed’s vice chair for supervision, wrote in a June response to a letter from Warren on the matter.
“While it would be inappropriate for me to comment on any specific ongoing supervisory matter, I take any allegation of wrongdoing or abuse by banks or bank executives very seriously,” Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould wrote to Warren in March.
The legislation she introduced Thursday may be meant to counter that.
“I have spent the last year calling on Donald Trump’s financial regulators to launch investigations into the big banks and executives who may have enabled Jeffrey Epstein’s horrific crimes,” Warren said in a statement Thursday. “Since they have failed to act, Congress must.”
The bill is not likely to pass this year but could see brighter prospects if the November midterm elections bring Democrats a majority in the Senate and House.
Incidentally, Warren and Garcia, the top Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee and House Oversight Committees, respectively, may chair those panels if power shifts.
The Epstein legislation has at least one cross-party sponsor, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-KY.
Massie was one of four House Republicans last year to sign a discharge petition, helping another measure, the Epstein Files Transparency Act, pass. That bill required the U.S. attorney general to release the DOJ and FBI’s Epstein-related documents.
In a statement Thursday, Massie said the Warren and Garcia bills would do for bank regulators what last year’s bill did for the DOJ.
“Justice for the survivors means following the money,” Massie said.
JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Deutsche Bank have agreed to pay well over $400 million combined to settle lawsuits brought by alleged victims in a sex trafficking operation connected to Epstein.
But only Deutsche has paid an Epstein-related penalty to a U.S. regulator. The New York Department of Financial Services in 2020 handed the German bank a $150 million penalty for “significant compliance failures in connection with the Bank’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and correspondent banking relationships.”
