Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, is pressing Bank of New York Mellon Corp. for details about $378 million in wire transfers the bank processed involving accounts linked to Jeffrey Epstein, according to a Bloomberg report.

In a letter sent Wednesday to BNY Chief Executive Officer Robin Vince, Wyden sought information about 270 wire transfers in and out of Epstein-related accounts, including what he described as “highly suspicious” payments of $1 million to Epstein accounts at JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bloomberg reported.

Wyden alleged the Bank of New York did not report suspicious activity to the U.S. Treasury Department until 2019, the year Epstein died in jail while facing federal sex-trafficking charges. The delay, the senator wrote, “may have enabled Jeffrey Epstein’s horrific crimes and allowed the abuse of women and girls to continue for years,” Bloomberg reported.

“Epstein was moving enormous sums of money around the globe to traffic women and girls, and BNY was well positioned to blow the whistle,” the senator wrote in the letter. 

In the letter cited Bloomberg, Wyden asks BNY for: 

  • Information on every BNY cash withdrawal tied to Epstein above $10,000 between 2001 and 2019
  • An explanation for at least 18 transfers of $1 million each that Epstein made in 2007
  • Copies of every suspicious activity report (SAR) the bank filed with Treasury concerning Epstein and his associates
  • Details on Epstein’s relationship managers and what the bank documented about his background

The inquiry is part of a broader, years-long effort by Wyden to trace Epstein-related money flows through major financial institutions. The senator has been tracking such transactions for four years and is pushing legislation that would require Treasury to turn over bank records tied to Epstein. 

“There is a pervasive culture of lawlessness on Wall Street as these banks turn a blind eye to the criminal activities of billionaires like Jeffrey Epstein,” Wyden said in a statement to Bloomberg. “Every one of these banks that enabled Epstein by waiting years to flag his suspicious transactions ought to face criminal investigation for violating the Bank Secrecy Act.” 

Wyden has also criticized Treasury for not releasing information about more than $1.5 billion in Epstein transactions that moved through multiple U.S. and Russian banks, according to the news agency. 

Read more at Bloomberg