Earlier this month, a choose dominated that two totally different lawsuits towards JPMorgan Chase over the financial institution’s ties to deceased “financier” and pedophile, Jeffrey Epstein, can be allowed to advance in U.S. Courts. One in every of these circumstances, introduced towards the financial institution by the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI), has been a specific focus of impartial media because the new yr started, partially as a result of the Lawyer Basic of the USVI, Denise George, was fired from her put up simply days after she filed that case.
In a listening to within the USVI case towards JPMorgan earlier this month, a USVI lawyer argued that the CEO of JPMorgan – Jamie Dimon – “knew in 2008 that his billionaire consumer [Jeffrey Epstein] was a intercourse trafficker.” The lawyer, Mimi Liu, additionally said that former JPMorgan Jes Staley additionally knew this about Epstein on the time, however famous: “This case was not simply Jes Staley … there will probably be quite a few paperwork that go far past his workplace to the chief suite.” Liu additionally asserted that “Staley knew, Dimon knew, JPMorgan Chase knew” about Epstein’s prison actions towards minors.
Whereas the financial institution has disputed that Dimon knew something about Epstein’s accounts on the financial institution or what he was actually as much as on the time, this Limitless Hangout investigation – a multi-part sequence – will reveal that Dimon’s rise to the highest put up at JPMorgan was intimately linked to the exact same group of people that enabled Jeffrey Epstein’s intercourse trafficking actions in addition to his in depth monetary crimes.
On this article, we’ll study how Dimon’s rise to turn out to be some of the highly effective males on Wall Avenue was largely reliant on prime executives and administrators of Financial institution One, which boasts extremely shut ties to The Restricted’s Leslie Wexner and his right-hand man for a lot of a long time, Columbus-area actual property developer John W. Kessler. Kessler and different people tied to Wexner had been the dominant forces that noticed Dimon put in as Financial institution One’s CEO in 2000. Financial institution One was acquired by JPMorgan in 2003 and, shortly thereafter, Dimon turned CEO of the mixed entity. That acquisition, in addition to the position of the Crown household in Chicago in Dimon’s choice as Financial institution One’s CEO, will probably be mentioned within the second a part of this sequence.
But, Dimon’s ties to the identical networks as Wexner, notably these characterised by their connections to organized crime and intelligence, preceded his time as Financial institution One’s CEO by a few years. As this text will present, Dimon’s building of what’s now Citigroup, alongside his mentor Sandy Weill, started with their takeover of an organization known as Business Credit score Company. That firm, in addition to its dad or mum firm, Management Knowledge Company, had a troubling historical past of ties to intelligence networks that had been extensively concerned in prison exercise – together with the so-called “personal CIA” shaped by CIA veteran Ted Shackley within the Seventies in addition to people essential to the Epstein story like Robert Maxwell.
Given these connections, JPMorgan’s claims that Dimon by no means knew what Jeffrey Epstein was as much as throughout his time with the financial institution turns into a lot tougher to consider. Moreover, as future installments of this sequence will present, the gamers mentioned right here – Dimon and Epstein amongst them – had been instrumental within the creation of what would manifest because the 2008 financial disaster. Not in contrast to a few of the occasions that sparked at this time’s banking disaster, figures like Jeffrey Epstein, Dimon’s mentor Sandy Weill and the previous Treasury Secretaries with shut associations with each males, Robert Rubin and Larry Summers, appeared to have engaged in actions that might deliberately provoke the collapse of sure banks to additional consolidate the banking sector for his or her profit. The purpose, each then and now, appears to have been a transfer in the direction of the logical conclusion of the “too large to fail” banking mannequin — the eventual creation of a centralized cartel of mega-banks that dominate, not solely industrial banking, but in addition central banking.
A Transient Historical past of Management Knowledge Company
Created by a gaggle of Naval engineers in 1956, on the daybreak of the American military-industrial complicated, Engineering Analysis Associates (ERA) was a army contractor with a deal with cryptography and code-breaking. Shortly after its creation, a part of the core ERA staff break up off and shaped Management Knowledge Company (CDC) a yr later in 1957.
CDC shortly turned a protection contractor in its personal proper and have become a significant purveyor of super-computers to delicate U.S. analysis services. These included Sandia Nationwide Laboratories and Oak Ridge Laboratories, each of which labored on the U.S. nuclear program. On the similar time, CDC additionally had an odd relationship with the Soviet Union’s personal delicate nuclear services, which finally led to congressional scrutiny. Congressional hearings from the mid-Seventies revealed that:
In 1968, a second-generation Management Knowledge Company 1604 system was put in on the Dubna Soviet Nuclear Facility close to Moscow. In 1972 [CDC] bought the Soviet Union a third-generation CDC 6200 system laptop. For these programs, [CDC’s] working assertion had improved by about $3 million {dollars} up to now three years. And the Soviet Union has gained 15 years in laptop know-how
The hearings additionally famous that CDC deliberate to promote Soviet-controlled Poland laptop programs so delicate that they had been solely used domestically on the Nationwide Safety Company (NSA) and the Atomic Vitality Fee. CDC claimed that Poland deliberate to make use of the gear at a Polish “highschool.” On the time, no American highschool or academic establishment of any kind possessed this specific system, and there have been solely 10 in the whole nation. As mirrored by these and different examples within the hearings’ transcripts, Congress’ issues had been primarily based across the notion that CDC’s enterprise in the united states concerned know-how transfers that undermined U.S. nationwide safety throughout the top of the Chilly Battle. These issues would solely develop with time.
After these hearings in 1974, CDC made an obvious transfer at rising its position in know-how transfers, regardless of political issues. By the late Seventies, that they had established a brand new subsidiary known as Worldtech, described within the press as “a division of Management Knowledge Corp that does analysis and consulting on, and brokering of, know-how transfers.”
As soon as Worldtech was established by CDC, it entered right into a three way partnership in 1979 with Greek writer George Bobolas that was known as Worldtech Hellas Ltd. 70% was owned by Bobolas and 20% was owned by CDC. The proprietor of the remaining 10% was not disclosed in stories on the time.
A 1979 letter from certainly one of Bobolas’ firms to A. Afonin, recognized as a “consultant of the State Committee for Overseas Financial Relations of the united states Council of Ministers,” proposed the creation of a “joint growth firm utilizing Worldtech for ‘world-wide know-how switch’” and confused that “Worldtech Hellas Ltd. will give loads of assist’ to ‘know-how switch on a global base.’” After journalist Paul Anastasi printed details about Bobolas and known as him a “KGB agent of affect,” certainly one of his firms, Bobtrade, asserted that “no improper switch of excessive know-how was concerned.” CDC moved to dissolve their partnership, doubtless as a consequence of unhealthy publicity.
Across the time that Worldtech was created, CDC’s then-executive vp, Robert D. Schmidt, was a part of the American Committee on U.S.-Soviet Relations (ACUSR, beforehand the American Committee on East-West Accord). Different members on the time, particularly in 1977, included Robert Maxwell’s lawyer and confidant, Samuel Pisar (stepfather to present U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken), in addition to Thomas Watson Jr. of IBM, who would turn out to be the U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union in 1979. One other member was Paul Ziffren, a significant determine within the organized crime networks that ran by way of Chicago and Hollywood described in Gus Russo’s acclaimed work Supermob. One other key determine within the “Supermob” community was Henry Crown. Crown, alongside along with his son and grandson – Lester and James, will probably be mentioned in higher element later on this sequence as a consequence of their pivotal position within the rise of Jamie Dimon.
Notably, within the early Seventies, Samuel Pisar advised Congress that the world was transferring “towards a single, unified world economic system, in disregard of nationwide frontiers, and even ideological boundaries.” He said that “all standard instruments of nationwide coverage, it appears to me, are quickly changing into anachronistic [as] the State itself, even a robust one, [..] is not a defendable financial entity.” Pisar additionally claimed that the principle drivers of this shift included “the multinational company” and “the dissemination of know-how.” He later frames know-how transfers by main multinational firms as giving rise to the “trans-ideological company” the place “capital personal enterprises” and “Communist state enterprises” freely intermingled and shaped joint ventures. When requested if these “trans-ideological firms” had been forces for good or for evil, Pisar responded that “I consider that on steadiness, they’re a drive for good,” however certified that as relying on how governments and company administration act “to make sure that they turn out to be forces for good.”
By the mid-Nineteen Eighties, Occidental Petroleum executives Armand Hammer and William McSweeney had additionally joined the ACUSR. Samuel Pisar additionally represented Hammer’s enterprise pursuits. Hammer notably served as a again channel between the People and the Soviets and had as soon as sought to amass the American financial institution First Basic Bancshares (FGB) for the aim of “financially blackmailing” US politicians, particularly members of Congress who had open accounts on the financial institution. It is usually price mentioning that Hammer’s father, Julius Hammer, had as soon as served as a Soviet spy.
One other member of the ACUSR was Joseph Filner, president of Noblemet Worldwide (later renamed the Newmet Company). Filner was extensively concerned in USSR-U.S. tech transfers. Filner’s Noblemet created a three way partnership for the aim of tech transfers, which was known as Multi-Arc. By 1984, CDC’s Worldtech had turn out to be “a worldwide advertising and marketing consultant for Multi-Arc.”
CDC would later recruit Minnesota governor Rudy Perpich after Perpich misplaced his re-election marketing campaign in 1979. Perpich, a dentist by coaching, would particularly work for CDC abroad as “vp and govt marketing consultant to Management Knowledge Worldtech Inc.”The New York Instances, reporting on his rent by CDC in January 1979, said that Perpich was anticipated to be primarily based in Yugoslavia, however he stated he may discover himself in Hungary, Bulgaria or Rumania [sic].” Robert Maxwell was additionally intimately concerned with tech transfers in Japanese Europe, particularly in Bulgaria, by way of the Bulgarian intelligence-linked Neva program that particularly focused and pirated Western-developed applied sciences. Perpich, after working for Worldtech, went on to win one other time period as Minnesota’s governor in 1983.
CDC, by that point, had additionally recruited one other influential politician, Walter Mondale. Mondale was employed by CDC proper after he left workplace as Jimmy Carter’s vp. CDC employed Mondale as a authorized marketing consultant and retained his providers for $2,000 per 30 days (about $6,537 in 2023 {dollars}).
Concurrently, Mondale was additionally a marketing consultant to Allen & Co, the corporate of the organized crime-linked brothers Charles and Herbert Allen. Mondale was not solely a marketing consultant to, but in addition a detailed good friend of the Allen brothers. The Allen brothers additionally labored intently with organized crime pursuits in addition to Leslie Wexner’s “mentors” Max Fisher and Alfred Taubman and he additionally had “a detailed enterprise affiliation with Earl Brian and had financed certainly one of his makes an attempt to purchase out Invoice Hamilton’s Inslaw.” Brian, together with Israeli spymaster Rafi Eitan, was the architect of the theft of the PROMIS software program initially created by Hamilton’s firm, Inslaw Inc. Brian’s lawyer, Allan Tessler, additionally served on the board of Les Wexner’s firm The Restricted and had a detailed enterprise relationship with one other organized crime-linked household, the Gouletas. The Gouletas household notably shared workplace area with Jeffrey Epstein whereas Epstein was working as Wexner’s monetary advisor within the late Nineteen Eighties.
CDC was itself tied up with the PROMIS theft and the ensuing scandal. The PROMIS software program, after its theft, was bugged by each Israel intelligence and a separate group that concerned the CIA, the “Supermob”-linked firm MCA, and Latin American drug cartels. This latter group’s model was used to spy totally on monetary establishments. Within the late Nineteen Eighties and early Nineteen Nineties, investigative journalist Danny Casolaro was writing a ebook that coated, amongst different issues, this group’s repurposing of PROMIS for monetary espionage and cash laundering. Shortly earlier than his premature demise in 1991, these near the journalist had seen paperwork obtained by Casolaro that detailed cash transfers from the World Financial institution to Earl Brian in addition to Saudi arms seller and Iran-Contra determine Adnan Khashoggi. Notably, all through the Nineteen Eighties, Khashoggi had retained the monetary providers of Jeffrey Epstein.
It seems that this model of PROMIS and its use on the World Financial institution concerned CDC in some capability. By 1983, CDC was offering its providers to the World Financial institution’s laptop middle and, that very same yr, the PROMIS software program was discovered to be in use at that particular facility to maintain monitor of wire transfers of cash. This comes from a sworn assertion that Inslaw Inc. obtained from David McCallum in 1995. In 1983, McCallum was working for CDC on the World Financial institution.
In my correspondence with Inslaw’s Invoice Hamilton, he said the next:
In keeping with an article within the Worldwide Banking Regulator dated January 17, 1994, U.S. Justice Division officers delivered the VAX model of PROMIS to the World Financial institution in 1983. The World Financial institution, as a global establishment, is outdoors the attain of discovery of the U.S. courts. For its half, the World Financial institution declares that it has been unable to seek out any proof that it ever possessed the VAX model of PROMIS.
Hamilton additionally relayed that he had as soon as been knowledgeable of a connection between CDC and PROMIS that concerned the Deputy Lawyer Basic beneath Ed Meese, D. Lowell Jensen. Nevertheless, he may not keep in mind the specifics of that connection.
Additionally important is the position CDC performed throughout the 1990 go to of Mikhail Gorbachev, the then-leader of the Soviet Union, to america. Throughout that journey, Gorbachev visited CDC headquarters alongside Rudy Perpich, in addition to Robert Maxwell. The Gorbachevs arrived in Minnesota instantly after a summit assembly in Washington with then-President George H.W. Bush.
In keeping with a report from the Minnesota Historic Society:
Gorbachev most probably agreed to the go to [Minnesota] as a result of a number of Minnesota-based firms – particularly the pc agency, Management Knowledge Company – had lengthy achieved enterprise within the Soviet Union. When the company’s officers discovered that Gorbachev was fascinated with a post-summit tour, they handed the phrase to Perpich, who had labored for Management Knowledge between his two phrases as governor. Albert Eisele, who had been a marketing consultant for Management Knowledge and, earlier, was Vice President Walter Mondale’s press secretary, drafted the governor’s letter inviting the Gorbachevs. Former Management Knowledge CEO Robert Value personally delivered the letter to the Soviet embassy on February 26, 1990.
In the course of the go to, Gorbachev attended a lunch on the governor’s mansion, the place Robert Maxwell and Rudy Perpich joined teams of Soviet and American officers. One of many American officers current was Condoleezza Rice, the long run Secretary of State who was then a Nationwide Safety Council workers member. Afterwards, there was a press convention the place Robert Maxwell, in attribute bombastic style, “introduced that he would donate $50 million to assist create a personal analysis establishment to be known as the Gorbachev-Maxwell Institute of Expertise.” Maxwell stated that the donation was “contingent on Perpich elevating matching funds.” Nevertheless, the institute was by no means launched.
After visiting Minnesota, Gorbachev subsequent visited Silicon Valley, the place he spent the week “attempting to excellent the artwork of successful acceptance and funding from the captains of capitalism.” A Washington Put up article on his go to quoted John Sculley, then-head of Apple Computer systems as saying, “I believe Gorbachev obtained to us… We’ll all be serious about enterprise with the Soviet Union in a method we wouldn’t have if he hadn’t come.”
Notably, Apple’s Steve Jobs was suggested by Samuel Pisar. Jobs later said that his 1985 journey to the united states had been “facilitated by a global lawyer primarily based in Paris” and that Jobs had a “feeling” that this legal professional “labored for the CIA or the KGB.” That lawyer was nearly definitely Pisar.
Business Credit score Company and the “personal CIA”
In 1968, CDC acquired the Business Credit score Company (CCC) to “assist its laptop prospects finance leases of firm {hardware} and stabilize erratic earnings” that then characterised a lot of the early laptop trade. A number of years after the acquisition, each CDC and CCC would discover themselves intertwined with the “personal CIA” community developed primarily by Ted Shackley, the Company’s notorious “Blond Ghost,” within the late Seventies and which later allied itself with George H.W. Bush. That is extremely important as this specific community was intimately concerned with the illicit transfers of each weapons and know-how, together with throughout the Iran-Contra scandal, the associated PROMIS scandal, and the subsequent “Chinagate” scandal of the mid-Nineteen Nineties.
For instance, round 1976, CDC employed the “rogue” CIA agent Edwin Wilson as a marketing consultant. Wilson, who later was despatched to jail when he was caught illegally promoting weapons to Libya, has been described as “half spy, half tycoon” and used an internet of firms he managed to profit his benefactors within the CIA and the Workplace of Naval Intelligence. Wilson had lengthy labored intently with Ted Shackley. He was additionally allegedly concerned in sexual blackmail operations involving each the American CIA and the South Korean CIA at Washington DC’s Georgetown Membership. CDC purportedly employed Wilson so he may assist the corporate “unload some outdated computer systems on Third World international locations.”
But, CDC leveraged Wilson’s in depth contacts and talents for far more, going as far as to have Wilson bug the U.S. Military’s Materiel Command on behalf of the corporate. The corporate was apparently in search of “inside info … on bidding and procurement plans” of the army. Given CDC’s position in illicit know-how switch, its ties to organized crime and intelligence-linked networks and its specific espionage exercise concentrating on the U.S. army, it appears truthful to say that CDC was far more than only a know-how firm.
CCC, for its half, additionally had odd connections to the networks round Shackley. As an illustration, one of many key elements of this “personal CIA” was an organization created by Shackley and one other CIA operative and long-time affiliate of Shackley’s named Thomas Clines. That firm was referred to as the Egyptian-American Air Transport and Companies Company, or EATSCO. Plainly EATSCO functioned as a intermediary in arms gross sales made by the Pentagon to Egypt and, later, different international locations.
EATSCO’s major help equipment on this regard was an airline known as International Worldwide Airways, which was primarily based in Kansas and based within the late Seventies by Farhad Azima. Azima was reportedly tied to Iran’s pre-revolutionary intelligence equipment, SAVAK, and – in response to writer Joseph Trento – was a frontman for the “personal CIA.” Trento additional alleges in his ebook Prelude to Terror that International Worldwide had truly been designed by James Cunningham, who had beforehand labored beneath Shackley because the supervisor of the CIA’s Air America. Air America, later renamed Southern Air Transport, would relocate to Columbus, Ohio within the mid-Nineteen Nineties as a part of a deal negotiated by Leslie Wexner’s The Restricted and, in response to native reporters within the Columbus space, his then-money supervisor, Jeffrey Epstein.
What is especially notable for the needs of this text is how International Worldwide was initially financed. It seems that Azima was solely capable of launch the airline after he was given, for causes that stay unclear, a “multi-million greenback mortgage from the Business Credit score Company.”
A number of years after it was acquired CDC, each Business Credit score Company and its dad or mum firm had been floundering. In 1985, two males would arrive, take over CCC, and switch the troubled, intelligence-linked monetary providers firm into what’s now the huge megabank Citigroup. These males had been Sanford “Sandy” Weill and his younger apprentice, Jamie Dimon.
The Starting of “Too Huge to Fail”
Sandy Weill started his Wall Avenue profession at Bear Stearns in 1955. There, he was a colleague of Alan “Ace” Greenberg, who would later head Bear Stearns and rent controversial figures akin to Jimmy Cayne and Jeffrey Epstein. Greenberg would later say of Weill that, throughout his temporary time at Bear Stearns, “it was straightforward to see he was a winner.”
By 1960, Weill had left Bear Stearns and teamed up with 4 mates to create their very own brokerage agency, which was first named Carter, Berlind, Potoma & Weill. After the departure of Arthur Carter and Peter Potoma, the agency later turned referred to as CBWL when Marshall Cogan, who beforehand had labored at CBS and the funding agency Orvis & Co., and Arthur Levitt, the long run chairman of the Securities and Change Fee (SEC) throughout the Clinton administration and later adviser to the intelligence-linked Carlyle Group, joined the agency.
A decade later, in 1970, Weill organized what can be the primary of many takeovers. His goal was Hayden Stone and his firm then turned CBWL-Hayden Stone. In 1974, Weill once more went on the offensive and acquired Shearson Hammill, creating Shearson Hayden Stone. After a number of extra acquisitions, Loeb, Rhoades was additionally acquired and the mixed agency turned Shearson Loeb Rhoades. It’s throughout this era that Weill would first encounter a younger Jamie Dimon.
Jamie Dimon’s father and grandfather had each been prime stockbrokers at Shearson and a younger Dimon briefly labored for the agency one summer season whereas on break from Tufts College. Dimon’s mother and father had befriended Sandy Weill and, at some point, gave Weill an economics time period paper Jamie had written about CBWL-Hayden Stone’s acquisition of Shearson. Weill was impressed with the paper and Dimon requested Weill for a summer season job.
Dimon, after graduating from Tufts, attended Harvard Enterprise College and labored over the summer season, not at Shearson however at Goldman Sachs. Round this time, Weill bought Shearson Loeb Rhoades to American Categorical in 1981 for $1 billion. As a part of the deal, Weill turned American Categorical’ president. In 1982, as Dimon was about to graduate, Weill approached Dimon and requested him to work for him at American Categorical as his govt assistant. For almost twenty years, Dimon would proceed to function Weill’s apprentice.
About three years later, in 1985, Weill was pressured out of American Categorical. Weill urged Dimon to remain on the firm, however Dimon selected the considerably riskier choice of continuous to work for Weill regardless of the uncertainty of the trail forward. They went on the hunt for a monetary providers firm in want of a drastic turnaround and finally settled on Business Credit score Company in 1986. In keeping with an instructional examine of Dimon’s early profession from Harvard Enterprise College, it was Weill and Dimon who recognized CCC after which satisfied Management Knowledge Company to spin off their troubled consumer-lending subsidiary. Nevertheless, a unique account in Fortune journal claims that Weill had been approached by two monetary officers at CCC who, “with out a respiration a phrase to their CEO,” got here to Weill “to induce that he purchase the corporate from its proprietor, Management Knowledge.” No matter which account is extra correct, the corporate tied to illicit tech transfers to the united states and the “personal CIA” would, inside a decade or so, develop right into a Wall Avenue titan.
Weill took management of the corporate in September 1986, changing into its President and CEO and taking the corporate public. Dimon served as the corporate’s Chief Monetary Officer and an Govt Vice President, later changing into its President. An previous bio of Dimon’s describes him as “a key member of the staff that launched and outlined the technique for Business Credit score Firm in October 1986.” A few yr after the acquisition, Weill’s CCC purchased again Management Knowledge’s remaining stake within the firm.
In August 1988, CCC acquired Primerica Company, the dad or mum firm of brokerage agency Smith Barney. Regardless of being the shopping for firm, Weill and Dimon determined to shed the CCC identify. A yr later, the brand new Primerica acquired 16 Drexel, Burnham & Co. branches and additionally acquired the department workplaces and mortgage portfolio of Barclays American Monetary, an American subsidiary of Barclays Financial institution PLC. In 1992, Primerica purchased a 27% stake within the insurance coverage big Vacationers and went on to purchase the rest of Vacationers later the next yr. On this similar interval, Weill and Dimon bought Shearson again from American Categorical, which – per Weill – “modified every little thing.” On the finish of 1993, Weill was CEO of the brand new entity, Vacationers Group, and Dimon was President and its Chief Working Officer. A number of years later, Vacationers Group would purchase Salomon Brothers, merging it with Smith Barney. Dimon turned the CEO and Chairman of the brand new Salomon Smith Barney.
1993 was additionally an vital yr for a good friend of Weill’s, former Goldman Sach’s head Robert Rubin. Rubin had simply turn out to be the director of President Clinton’s Nationwide Financial Council and was the one who signed off on Jeffrey Epstein’s first go to to the Clinton White Home in February 1993. Epstein would make 17 visits to the White Home in whole between February 1993 and January 1995, lots of them tied to Clinton-era fundraising scandals. Throughout this time, Epstein’s identify was mysteriously dropped from the case concerning the Towers Monetary Ponzi Scheme, regardless of him being labeled the “mastermind” of the scheme in grand jury testimony. Shortly after Clinton left workplace, Epstein would play a pivotal position in creating the Clinton Basis, which critics have derided as a Clinton household “slush fund.”
Robert Rubin turned Treasury Secretary in 1995 and, in that capability, would later work with Weill to consecrate the wedding between Weill’s Vacationers Group and Citicorp within the late Nineteen Nineties, creating Citigroup and one of many greatest “too large to fail” banks of at this time. This merger necessitated, amongst different issues, the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act. Rubin would later be rewarded by Weill with a profitable place at Citigroup. The position of Weill, Rubin and Rubin’s deputy, Larry Summers, within the repeal of Glass-Steagall and the 2008 financial disaster will probably be mentioned in one other installment of this sequence. Notably, Larry Summers, whose shut relationship with Epstein is a matter of file, started his friendship with the deceased pedophile whereas he was Rubin’s deputy (if not earlier).
The partnership between Weill and Dimon would collapse shortly after the creation of Citigroup. In keeping with some who had been near Weill and Dimon round this time, the tensions between the 2 had been palpable in 1998. On the time, a Citigroup spokesperson advised the New York Instances {that a} restructuring of the financial institution’s management hierarchy, which “would have supplied Mr. Dimon much less authority at Citigroup than he wished and that finally led to his departure.” A number of years later, in 2010, Weill advised the New York Instances that Dimon had pushed to be Citi’s CEO at a time when Weill wasn’t able to retire. Within the years that adopted, Weill softened his account of their parting much more, lamenting in 2014 that the 2 hadn’t “been capable of work out [their] points” and proceed their partnership.
Like Weill had been after his ouster from American Categorical in 1985, Dimon’s future after Citigroup was unsure. He was supplied jobs from quite a lot of firms, together with Amazon, however turned all of them down as he waited for the appropriate “monetary providers” alternative to come back alongside. That chance would come within the yr 2000, as Financial institution One hunted for a brand new CEO.
Financial institution One – The financial institution behind Leslie Wexner and The Restricted
Financial institution One was based in Columbus, Ohio in 1870 as Metropolis Nationwide Financial institution (CNB) and – for a lot of the twentieth century – was run by the McCoy household. John G. McCoy took over the agency from his father, John H. McCoy, in 1958 and, very early on, sought to determine ways in which know-how may enhance comfort for patrons. In consequence, CNB was an early adopter of the bank card and the forerunner of the automated teller machine (ATM) within the late Nineteen Sixties. Over the subsequent a number of a long time, CNB ballooned in measurement, buying 22 small Ohio banks inside a holding firm that might later turn out to be Banc One. Banc One (maybe confusingly) later turned Financial institution One after a merger within the mid-90s and up till its acquisition by JPMorgan. To keep away from confusion, the rest of this text will check with the financial institution as Financial institution One.
Someday earlier than his retirement in 1984, John G. McCoy was a banker for a lot of Columbus space companies, together with Leslie Wexner’s The Restricted. Little info is on the market concerning the specifics of the connection between Wexner’s enterprise pursuits and Financial institution One previous to the mid-Nineteen Eighties.
Nevertheless, Wexner’s proper hand man all through the Nineteen Eighties, Nineteen Nineties and past – John “Jack” Kessler – was very near John G. McCoy. Kessler, who turned mates with Wexner after they each attended Ohio State College, later claimed that John G. McCoy had been his “greatest mentor” and “like a second father.” He additionally went on to notice that he had been placed on Financial institution One’s board by John G. McCoy when Kessler “was a really younger man.” When Kessler was requested about what “lasting classes” he discovered from John G. McCoy, he responded:
The way you conduct your self in enterprise. Ethics and your status. He at all times gave us talks – he did the identical with Les [Wexner], who was additionally very near him – ensuring you give again to your group.
Data of Financial institution One reported on by Harvard Enterprise College college listing Kessler’s Date of Rent (DOH) to the financial institution’s board as 1986, when Kessler was 50 years previous and when John G. McCoy’s son – John B. McCoy – had already taken the reigns on the financial institution. No matter whether or not Kessler’s connection to the financial institution preceded 1986 or not, each Kessler and Wexner had been near John G. McCoy and Kessler would proceed to have a really shut reference to the financial institution nicely after it was acquired by JPMorgan within the early 2000s.
Wexner for his half, was additionally on Financial institution One’s board of administrators throughout the Nineteen Nineties (and doubtlessly earlier) and, as will probably be famous once more later, Wexner’s The Restricted even held “unclaimed funds” belonging to the financial institution, suggesting very shut ties between Wexner’s companies and the financial institution. In 1996, Wexner said of McCoy that “John has been a mentor, each to me and The Restricted, for a few years.” As we’ll see, it is vitally attainable that Wexner’s lower than authorized monetary actions, which might later embody his patronage of and affiliation with Jeffrey Epstein, could have been learnt from John G. McCoy, as Financial institution One beneath his tenure reportedly turned concerned in – amongst different issues – cash laundering on behalf of Israel intelligence.
John G. McCoy retired as the top of the financial institution in 1984, along with his son – John B. McCoy – taking up. Round this similar time, state banking legal guidelines had been altered to permit financial institution holding firms to amass banks in numerous states. This led Financial institution One to start quickly buying banks all through the nation, together with in Indiana, Kentucky, Texas, Arizona, Wisconsin and Louisiana. The dramatic development of Financial institution One through quite a few acquisitions finally earned John B. McCoy a spot on Forbes’ listing of the six bankers who constructed up the principle “too large to fail banks” of at this time. One of many different six, unsurprisingly, is Sandy Weill.
The mid-Nineteen Eighties had been a time of nice change for Financial institution One and it was additionally a time of nice change for Leslie Wexner, his companies and his enterprise associates. A few of the adjustments for Wexner throughout this era, which might see Jeffrey Epstein enter his inside circle, had been spurred by a grisly homicide. In 1985, the tax legal professional for The Restricted, Arthur Shapiro, was shot within the face in a homicide that, nonetheless at this time, stays unsolved. Shapiro was murdered only a day earlier than he was as a consequence of testify to the IRS in a case associated to his submitting of fraudulent tax returns.
As Limitless Hangout beforehand reported on the case:
As an unindicted co-conspirator, Shapiro wouldn’t have been indicted himself, however he may have offered damaging info concerning those that had been indicted, giving appreciable motive to [Berry] Kessler and the opposite co-conspirators—unnamed within the [Columbus] Dispatch or different media stories on the time—to see that Shapiro didn’t testify. What’s odd about this courtroom case, past the numerous reality {that a} key witness had been shot in what police known as a “mob fashion homicide” or “mafia hit,” is that Kessler and his co-conspirators had been solely sentenced to probation and didn’t serve jail time for the crime of serving to Shapiro file false tax returns in 1971 and 1976.
This raises a number of questions: Why was Shapiro an unindicted co-conspirator if he was the one who filed the fraudulent tax returns, whereas these charged had been convicted of aiding Shapiro file the false returns? Does that imply Shapiro had deliberate to testify about different people concerned in an even bigger scheme, who weren’t a part of this specific case, in change for avoiding tax-fraud prices towards himself? Additionally, why had been these convicted given such lenient sentences regardless of Shapiro’s deliberate testimony being the most probably motive for his high-profile homicide?
It’s truthful to say that none of those questions have ever been answered correctly by Ohio authorities. Nevertheless, just a few years after Shapiro was killed, Elizabeth Leupp – an analyst with Columbus Police’s Organized Crime Bureau, despatched a report to her superior Curtis Marcum. It quickly made its solution to the then-Columbus Police Chief James Jackson, who shortly suppressed the doc and ordered it destroyed. It was by chance launched to native Ohio journalist Bob Fitrakis in response to a Freedom of Data Act request he had filed a couple of totally different matter. The censored doc discusses intimately how Shapiro’s homicide was seen by police as a mob-style homicide and it extensively detailed the organized crime connections of two of Ohio’s wealthiest males – Leslie Wexner and a enterprise accomplice of Wexner’s, Edward DeBartolo Sr.
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The doc additionally extensively talked about John Kessler. It states that the investigation into Shapiro’s demise turned “extra complicated” after “uncommon interactive relationship between the next enterprise organizations” had been revealed. These organizations are listed so as as: The Main Chord Jazz Membership, tied to former Columbus Metropolis Council President Jeremy Hammond; Wexner’s The Restricted and its funding pursuits; Walsh Trucking Firm, operated by Frank Walsh who had recognized connections to the Genovese crime household; Arthur Shapiro’s regulation agency, which dropped Shapiro’s identify from the agency hours after his demise; The Edward DeBartolo Company, which additionally had documented organized crime connections detailed within the report; and John W. Kessler, who’s referred to within the report as a “native developer.”
Relating to Walsh Trucking, it’s price noting that – when New York regulation enforcement tried to subpoena Walsh’s financial institution data in investigating his organized crime ties, his tackle was listed as The Restricted’s company headquarters. As well as, the DeBartolo household’s ties to organized crime are literally far more in depth than Leupp famous in her report and people particulars will be present in a earlier Limitless Hangout investigation on the subject in addition to the ebook One Nation Underneath Blackmail, Vol. 2.
Relating to Kessler, one of many suspect companies detailed within the report is known as the W & Ok Partnership, which Leupp believed to be the Wexner & Kessler partnership and a forerunner to the New Albany mission that the 2 males finally co-founded. The partnership, Leupp notes, had invested a major sum of money in Hammond’s Jazz Membership. Because the report later states, the monetary tie of this partnership to Hammond was apparently used to primarily bribe Hammond so he would help controversial authorized adjustments in Franklin County to profit the Wexner-Kessler New Albany mission, which had lobbied extensively for these adjustments regardless of public opposition.
Notably, Kessler, in addition to Hammond, had been later investigated by Columbus police in reference to a few of the exercise detailed in Leupp’s report in addition to corruption involving public contracts. But, by the point of the grand jury in 1995, Leupp’s report had already been taken out of circulation by the Columbus Police Chief. Kessler and Hammond had been finally not charged as a consequence of “inadequate proof.” Oddly, the prosecutors concerned within the case declined to name both Kessler or Hammond to testify when each had agreed to take action, suggesting that the prosecutors pursued the claims towards each males half-heartedly.
In Leupp’s report, Kessler’s agency – the John W. Kessler firm – can also be listed as sharing workplace area with the New Albany Firm and agency known as PFI Leasing, the place Wexner’s cash supervisor earlier than Jeffrey Epstein, Harold Levin, was listed as Vice President. Epstein, after he rose to the highest of Wexner’s inside circle, had taken over that place at PFI Leasing from Levin by 1990. It’s famous within the report {that a} lawyer from Arthur Shapiro’s agency had been caught dashing in a automobile registered to PFI Leasing, suggesting that this firm was used to supply “perks”, akin to lent autos, to individuals working inside Wexner’s community.
One other firm on this similar location was initially named Lewex, however was later renamed Parkview Monetary. Levin was listed as Vice President of Parkview till 1990, when that place additionally turned Epstein’s. Parkview Monetary then turned a significant automobile for each Wexner’s and Epstein’s actions within the New York Metropolis actual property market, a number of of which tie into properties linked to his intercourse trafficking actions and Ossa Properties, the actual property firm run by Epstein’s brother – Mark Epstein – and former staff of Epstein’s J. Epstein & Co.
Within the report – and elsewhere – Kessler is portrayed as certainly one of Wexner’s closest associates and, as beforehand talked about, co-founded the New Albany mission with Wexner. An article within the Cleveland Plain Seller, cited by Fitrakis, stated the next of the genesis of the mission: “Wexner and Kessler shaped the New Albany Co. and spun off a bunch of paper firms to cowl their footprints. Then their minions knocked on doorways and made the proverbial gives you couldn’t refuse.”
Jeffrey Epstein obtained concerned within the New Albany mission round 1988, shortly after changing into a monetary advisor to Wexner. He was finally a normal accomplice within the real-estate holding firm, New Albany Property. This, after all, signifies that Epstein would have recognized Kessler fairly nicely. Bob Fitrakis, quoted in Vicky Ward’s 2003 piece on Epstein in Vainness Honest, said of the connection that “Earlier than Epstein got here alongside in 1988, the monetary preparations and groundwork for the New Albany growth had been a complete mess […] Epstein cleaned every little thing up.” Ward notes the oddity of Epstein having a normal partnership in New Albany Property “regardless of placing only some million {dollars} of capital into the mission.” Epstein was additionally given a luxurious residence within the growth by Wexner, which he later bought.
On the similar time Epstein was advising Wexner and changing into a accomplice in New Albany alongside Kessler, he was additionally serving to to orchestrate one of many largest Ponzi schemes in U.S. historical past with Steven Hoffenberg through Hoffenberg’s firm Towers Monetary. Epstein had beforehand described his work after he left Bear Stearns in 1981 as that of a “monetary bounty hunter” and that he had helped “conceal and discover looted cash” for highly effective individuals, together with Iran-Contra figures like Adnan Khashoggi. On condition that New Albany and its obvious predecessor, the W & Ok partnership, had been intimately concerned within the net of firms tied to Arthur Shapiro’s homicide and contemplating Epstein’s prior work historical past, it appears attainable that what Epstein helped to “clear up” at New Albany could have concerned actions that had been lower than authorized.
Wexner, Kessler and Epstein weren’t the one noteworthy residents of New Albany so far as this text is worried. One of many first rich elites of Columbus that purchased property within the luxurious growth was none apart from John G. McCoy, Financial institution One’s head from 1958 to 1984 and “mentor” to each Kessler and Wexner. As we speak, the New Albany Group Basis has an award named in honor John G. McCoy and each Kessler and Wexner are previous recipients.
The Financial institution One Laundromat
Financial institution One, within the early Nineteen Nineties, had an obvious relationship with a controversial knowledge processing and financial institution software program agency tied to the aforementioned PROMIS scandal and monetary espionage. That firm, Systematics, was managed by the intelligence-linked Arkansas businessman and political kingmaker Jackson Stephens. Stephens, who performed a significant position within the rise of the Clinton household, tapped Little Rock’s Rose regulation agency, the place Hillary Clinton labored, to signify Systematics. Systematics has lengthy been of curiosity to researchers of the PROMIS scandal, with the late journalist Michael Ruppert referring to the corporate as “a major developer of PROMIS for monetary intelligence use.”
Systematics had very shut ties to American intelligence, together with the NSA and CIA, and was alleged to be a “money-shuffler for covert operations.” Systematics additionally had a relationship with the Financial institution of Credit score and Commerce Worldwide (BCCI) and was a contractor to BCCI’s American subsidiary First American. BCCI, as famous in One Nation Underneath Blackmail, was primarily a personal intelligence equipment masquerading as a financial institution and – along with cash laundering for intelligence businesses and arranged crimes – was straight concerned within the intercourse trafficking of minors to be able to curry favor with financial institution “VIPs” and the ruling elite of nations just like the United Arab Emirates.
Systematics additionally had connections to Israeli intelligence. It had a subsidiary in Boston in addition to Israel that employed undercover Mossad brokers and targeted on the sale of software program to banks. Systematics additionally entered into a three way partnership with Israel intelligence operative and media mogul Robert Maxwell. Maxwell, who was additionally Israel’s most profitable salesman of the bugged PROMIS software program, teamed up with Systematics to promote PROMIS to 5 banks, most of which had been Swiss.
Financial institution One’s ties to Systematics got here by way of its acquisition of Staff Bancshares Inc., which had already entered right into a multi-year knowledge processing contract with Systematics on the time of the merger. Financial institution One finally cancelled that contract in favor of a competitor. On the time of those occasions, Systematics had not too long ago turn out to be a subsidiary of Alltel, the place Jackson Stephens additionally had a significant stake. Actually, Jackson Stephens, after the merger, turned Alltel’s single largest shareholder and Stephens’ son Warren Stephens was positioned on the Alltel board.
An unspecified “main” stake in Alltel was notably held by Lester Crown, the son of “Supermob” affiliate Henry Crown. Lester Crown was a founding member of the Leslie Wexner-created “Mega Group” and his son, James S. Crown, would play a significant position within the actions of Financial institution One after 1995, together with the rent of Jamie Dimon to steer the financial institution. The Crowns are mentioned in-depth within the subsequent installment of this sequence.
Per stories, the time that Financial institution One had a contract with Systematics after it merged with Staff Bancshares was comparatively temporary. Nevertheless, Financial institution One – for a few years prior – had additionally been concerned with a lot of the covert exercise that Systematics had helped allow, notably cash laundering for intelligence businesses.
Former Israeli spy Ari Ben Menashe mentions Financial institution One’s position in laundering funds for Israeli intelligence-brokered arms offers, offers during which Ben Menashe had been personally concerned. In his ebook, Earnings of Battle, he states the next about how Israeli intelligence acquired cash from its arms gross sales to Iran with the involvement of banks like Financial institution One in addition to U.S. intelligence:
A letter of credit score from the Iranian authorities can be issued to an Israeli “entrance” firm by a European-based Iranian firm by way of the London or Paris department of Iran’s Financial institution Melli. It could be endorsed by the Nationwide Westminster Financial institution in England, and we might then ask for it to be transferred to an American Financial institution. Favorites had been the Chicago-Tokyo Financial institution in Chicago, the Chemical Financial institution in New York, Financial institution One in Ohio, and the Valley Nationwide Financial institution of Arizona. Then the banks must clarify these letters of credit score, in U.S. {dollars}, to the U.S. Treasury in the event that they had been to simply accept them. In keeping with U.S. Treasury rules, letters of credit score for sums in extra of $10,000 needed to be authorised by the Treasury.
For the reason that gross sales had been a U.S.-sanctioned operation, the CIA must make sure that Treasury issued an acceptance. As soon as the letter of credit score was authorised, it was moved again once more to Europe. Aside from the John Avenue operations in 1981-1982, this was to be the best way nearly all American-supplied arms gross sales to Iran had been dealt with from late 1981 till late 1987.
In different phrases, from 1981-1987, Financial institution One was a “favourite” financial institution of Israel intelligence for the laundering of arms dealing earnings. Notably, all however the first of those 4 “favourite” banks at the moment are a part of JPMorgan.
What’s notably attention-grabbing about this passage from Earnings of Battle is that one of many different banks talked about, Valley Nationwide Financial institution, was later acquired by Financial institution One in 1992, shortly after Financial institution One acquired Staff Bancshares. That is notable for just a few causes as Valley Nationwide Financial institution seems in a separate a part of Ben Menashe’s ebook, the place Ben Menashe states that he deposited $4 million on behalf of Israeli intelligence right into a Valley Nationwide Checking account owned by PROMIS scandal architect Earl Brian. That cash, per Menashe, was prone to have originated from Latin American drug gross sales. Valley Nationwide Financial institution was additionally recognized to present multi-million greenback loans to Charles Keating’s American Continental Company (ACC). As well as, Cindy McCain, spouse of late Senator John McCain, wrote checks to Keating’s ACC from her private Valley Nationwide account. John McCain was one of many “Keating 5” and was accused of corrupt dealings involving Keating, a white collar prison who performed a significant position within the S & L disaster of the Nineteen Eighties and who was additionally a determine within the banking circles surrounding BCCI.
It’s additionally price mentioning that the top of Valley Nationwide, Richard Lehmann, remained answerable for the financial institution after its acquisition by Financial institution One, at which level it turned Financial institution One Arizona. Simply three years after the acquisition, in 1995, Lehmann turned president and chief working officer of the whole Financial institution One Company, the place he labored straight with John B. McCoy.
As well as, one other of Financial institution One’s acquisitions, which occurred just a few years earlier than it acquired Valley Nationwide, noticed them take up one other financial institution with unsettling connections. In 1989, 20 banks owned by Mcorp failed and had been taken over by the FDIC in what was, on the time, the second costliest financial institution rescue in U.S. historical past. The FDIC awarded all these banks to Financial institution One. Mcorp had been the results of a merger between the Mercantile Texas Company and Financial institution of the Southwest, which occurred in 1984. The latter financial institution had a detailed relationship with a Houston-based basis that moved CIA cash known as the San Jacinto fund. The one who ran that fund, Ernest Cockrell Jr., was additionally a board member of Financial institution of the Southwest. As well as, the Financial institution of the Southwest had a detailed relationship with the M.D. Basis, which had funnelled CIA cash to a global lawyer group on the Company’s request.
Financial institution One’s connections to those networks brings up an apparent query: Did such networks additionally intersect with Leslie Wexner and his companies? As I famous in One Nation Underneath Blackmail, former funding banker and authorities official Catherine Austin Fitts, who has extensively investigated the intersection of organized crime, Wall Avenue and the federal government within the U.S. economic system, was advised by an ex-CIA official that Wexner was certainly one of 5 key managers of organized crime money flows within the U.S. As beforehand talked about, Wexner had organized crime connections, together with by way of his enterprise accomplice, Edward DeBartolo Sr., and the person who was managed a lot of The Restricted’s logistical enterprise domestically, Frank Walsh.
As well as, from 1992 to 1995, Wexner’s The Restricted performed a significant position in courting two totally different CIA-connected airways to relocate to Rickenbacker airfield in Columbus, Ohio to ostensibly run “cargo” for The Restricted. They finally settled on Southern Air Transport, previously the CIA’s Air America and one of many foremost airways implicated in illicit actions within the Iran-Contra scandal. The relocation of Southern Air to Ohio was additionally notably secured with the assistance of Alan Fiers Jr., the previous chief of the CIA Central American Job Pressure, and Richard Secord, the previous head of Air America’s covert motion in Laos within the late Nineteen Sixties. Secord was additionally the air logistics coordinator for Oliver North throughout Iran-Contra, whereas Fiers had additionally been intimately concerned within the scandal.
Bob Fitrakis has claimed that Epstein, who was concerned in logistics planning for The Restricted on the time, was additionally a part of this deal. Epstein had his personal connections to Iran-Contra period arms offers by way of his former consumer Adnan Khashoggi and certainly one of his mentors, British arms seller Douglas Leese. The relocation of Southern Air Transport to Ohio and the start of the airline’s partnership with The Restricted notably occurred in 1995, when Wexner was additionally on the board of Financial institution One.
If Financial institution One’s management, throughout the Nineteen Eighties, participated in cash laundering for Iran-Contra period arms offers and the financial institution’s management – John G. McCoy and his son – had been so near Wexner, the potential of such a connection is excessive. There may be additionally the next to think about – The Restricted was apparently holding onto “unclaimed funds” belonging to Financial institution One within the Nineteen Nineties, when Wexner and Kessler had been each on the financial institution’s board. But, stories quizzically claimed that neither state officers nor The Restricted may “discover” the financial institution to return the cash.
Because the Columbus Dispatch reported in 1995:
Banc One has department workplaces throughout Ohio and its headquarters are throughout the road from the Statehouse, however apparently state officers can’t discover the multibillion-dollar banking operation. The identify of the nation’s eighth-largest financial institution holding firm reveals up on the state’s listing of householders of unclaimed funds.
However Ohio just isn’t alone. The Restricted, which is holding the funds, couldn’t discover the banking firm both, regardless that Leslie H. Wexner, the specialty retailer’s chairman, sits on Banc One’s board of administrators.
The declare that state officers and the enterprise of a financial institution’s board member “couldn’t discover” Financial institution One to return their “unclaimed funds” to them is odd by itself. Even crazier is the concept Financial institution One’s “unclaimed funds” can be held by The Restricted, nominally a retail enterprise, and never one other financial institution or a state establishment.
Dimon Rising
Although Wexner was not on Financial institution One’s board on the time Jamie Dimon was employed, John Kessler was. Kessler, who has acknowledged his position in deciding on Dimon because the financial institution’s CEO, has sung Dimon’s praises for a few years. But, additionally essential to Dimon’s rent in addition to John B. McCoy’s abrupt departure from the financial institution was James S. Crown and a prime govt on the Sara Lee Company, a Crown-controlled firm. Each males had been administrators of the First Chicago NBD financial institution, which merged with Financial institution One in 1995.
James Crown’s father, Lester Crown, was near Wexner, having been a member of the “Mega Group”, which Wexner co-founded with Charles Bronfman in 1991. His grandfather, Henry Crown, was a significant determine within the aforementioned “Supermob” community in addition to a significant determine within the American protection trade by way of his management of protection contractor Basic Dynamics. The subsequent installment of this sequence will study the Crown household intimately in addition to their dominant position at First Chicago NBD and the way they spurred McCoy’s ouster from Financial institution One and the hunt for a brand new CEO. Dimon’s arrival to Financial institution One and his time there up till he turned CEO of JPMorgan will even be mentioned.
Acknowledgements: Ed Berger contributed analysis to this report.
This investigative sequence is sponsored by the Solari Report.
