Epstein files fight brews on Capitol Hill over records of suspicious financial transactions
Senator Ron Wyden is introducing a bill to force Trump's Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, to release records related to $1.5 billion in suspicious transactions.
Earlier this summer, Sen. Wyden announced recent developments in his longstanding investigation into Epstein’s finances in an interview with All Rise News.
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A new financial front is opening on Capitol Hill in the battle for transparency over the investigation of Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes.
On Wednesday morning, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) announced that he is introducing the Produce Epstein Treasury Records Act to force Donald Trump’s Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, to turn over the records related to at least $1.5 billion in transactions to his investigators.
“The basic question here is whether a bunch of rich pedophiles and Epstein accomplices are going to face any consequences for their crimes, and Scott Bessent is doing his best to make sure they won’t,” Wyden wrote in a statement. “My head just about exploded when I heard Bessent say it wasn’t his department’s job to investigate these Epstein bank records, because it’s simply impossible that somebody with his background in finance is unaware of FinCEN or any of the other investigative offices within the Treasury.”
Short for the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, FinCEN compiles suspicious activity reports, or SARs, from banking institutions whenever there is a suspected case of money laundering or fraud.
“From the beginning, my view has been that following the money is the key to identifying Epstein’s clients as well as the henchmen and banks that enabled his sex trafficking network,” Wyden added. “It’s past time for Bessent to quit running interference for pedophiles and give us the Epstein files he’s sitting on.”
The top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, Wyden has been investigating Epstein’s finances for three years, around the same time that survivors sued J.P. Morgan and Deutsche Bank for allegedly facilitating Epstein’s sex trafficking operation. The cases settled for $290 million and $75 million, respectively, but Wyden’s investigation continued, as the Epstein case faded from the headlines and reemerged with a vengeance during Trump’s second term.
The Produce Epstein Treasury Records Act, also known as PETRA, mandates that Bessent turn over all suspicious activity reports “related to Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators (whether indicted or unindicted) and any and all individuals and entities who transacted with Jeffrey Epstein or entities he owned or controlled, whether directly or through Epstein’s representatives” to the leaders of the Senate Finance and Senate Banking Committees.
The bill also demands a report of all financial institutions that submitted suspicious activity reports about Epstein, a list of all individuals and activities flagged in those reports, and the total dollar value of those transactions.
Law enforcement has described Epstein’s sex trafficking conspiracy as a pyramid scheme of abuse because he paid his victims hundreds of dollars in cash for massages that escalated into sexual assault, and then he handed them more money to recruit other victims. Those payments added up, and banks noticed the withdrawals, according to a recent New York Times investigation.
“In 2003, Epstein withdrew more than $175,000 in cash from his JPMorgan accounts — a huge haul, even for someone with millions at the bank,” the article reported. “Outside investigators later found that Epstein paid almost that exact amount to women that year.”
Wyden’s bill seeks information about potential transactions with 72 individuals and entities by name, including his executors Darren Indyke and Richard Kahn, attorney Alan Dershowitz, modeling scout Jean Luc Brunel, and billionaires Les Wexner, Peter Thiel, and Glenn Dubin, among others.
The full text of the bill is here.
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