Lawmakers Question Bank of America About Leon Black’s Payments to Epstein
Summary
In the letter, dated April 4, Mr. Wyden said the committee believed the payments to Mr. Epstein for tax work came from accounts Mr. Black had at Bank of America. Whit Clay, a spokesman for Mr. Black, said, “The transactions the committee reviewed were both lawful and conceived, vetted and executed by reputable law firms and tax advisers.” He added that Mr. Black “has paid all taxes owed to the government” and provided detailed information to the committee.” The role of big banks in facilitating Mr. Epstein’s sex trafficking of teenage girls and young women came under scrutiny last year when JPMorgan Chase agreed to pay $290 million to more than 100 of his victims, and Deutsche Bank reached a $75 million settlement with many of those victims. Last summer the Senate committee announced that it was investigating the work Mr. Epstein did for Mr. Black as part of an examination of legal “tax dodging” schemes used by the ultrarich. For many years, Bank of America was the main provider of art loans to Mr. Black, whose $1 billion private collection includes works by Edvard Munch, Leonardo da Vinci, Edgar Degas, Henri Matisse, Joan Miró and Pablo Picasso, according to corporate filings. In the letter to Mr. Moynihan, Mr. Wyden also asked whether the bank had done any internal review into the sale of artwork that raised concerns about whether “Epstein was acting as a straw purchaser or seller.”