Newly released documents from the U.S. Department of Justice show that Morgan Stanley established banking relationships for entities tied to Jeffrey Epstein during a period stretching from 2015 through 2019, even though Epstein had been a convicted sex offender since a 2008 plea agreement. The DOJ publication, which included more than 3 million pages released on January 30, 2026, contains emails and letters that trace account openings, funding confirmations and later account closures connected to Epstein-related trusts.
The materials make clear that Epstein’s financial agents and business entities continued to seek and secure services from Morgan Stanley long after his 2008 conviction, at a time when several other large financial institutions were distancing themselves from him. The documents include an April 17, 2015 email in which Epstein’s longtime accountant, Richard Kahn, wrote that a Morgan Stanley account was open and funded with 5,000,000. Portions of the files are redacted or corrupted, which renders some entries partially illegible and complicates precise interpretation of amounts and account names.
Additional correspondence dated February 6, 2016 appears at the end of an exchange involving Epstein in which Kahn referenced an "existing brokerage account in stc name currently has approximately 17,250,=00(sic)." The format and some characters in the record make it unclear whether the numbers cited refer to thousands or millions; Reuters could not determine the exact sum. The reference appears to involve Southern Trust, one of Epstein’s companies.
In the documents, communications with Morgan Stanley were routed through Kahn. His lawyer did not respond to a request for comment. Kahn is identified in the filings as one of two executors of Epstein’s estate. The estate paid $105 million in cash to the U.S. Virgin Islands to resolve claims that the territory was used as a base for sex trafficking operations. The estate also established a restitution fund that disbursed $121 million to victims. The other executor named in the filings is Darren Indyke; his lawyer likewise did not respond to a request for comment.
The files show Morgan Stanley closed at least one Epstein-linked account in 2017. On August 18, 2017, Rachel Kaplan, who at the time served as a complex risk officer and vice president in Morgan Stanley’s wealth management division, sent a letter to Epstein and his counsel, Darren Indyke, addressed to Southern Trust Co., stating the firm had decided to "terminate our current broker/client relationship." Morgan Stanley referred questions to the firm and declined to comment about the bank’s relationship with Epstein.
Despite that 2017 termination, the documents indicate that a new account connected to Epstein’s financial interests was opened in 2019. On March 18, 2019, Kahn confirmed the opening of a Morgan Stanley account for Butterfly Trust, one of Epstein’s entities, according to the DOJ materials. Sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that the 2019 account was opened but closed shortly afterward; those sources also said Morgan Stanley had previously closed a different Epstein trust account in 2017 after notifying Epstein of the decision. The sources did not provide further details about the reasons for the closures or precise timing beyond what appears in the released emails.
The documents record that these account actions occurred amid increased public scrutiny of Epstein’s conduct. Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to a Florida state prostitution charge, received a 13-month jail sentence and was registered as a sex offender under that plea arrangement. Media attention intensified in the following decade, including a 2016 defamation suit brought by Virginia Giuffre against Ghislaine Maxwell, and investigative reporting such as articles published in 2018. Epstein was later arrested in July 2019 on federal charges accusing him of sex trafficking dozens of underage girls, and he died by suicide in a Manhattan jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial.
The DOJ documents also reference a 2020 settlement between a state regulator and a bank that cited Butterfly Trust in connection with transactions that regulator flagged as suspicious. That settlement involved a fine related to allowing Epstein to withdraw cash amounts whose patterns raised regulatory questions. The documents do not, however, show direct communications from Epstein to Morgan Stanley, and Reuters said it found no evidence in the released materials of wrongdoing by Morgan Stanley or by the executors of Epstein’s estate.
Under U.S. regulatory requirements, banks are obligated to identify and verify customers and beneficial owners and to monitor for suspicious transactions as part of customer due diligence. The released emails and records do not provide a full account of what specific due-diligence measures Morgan Stanley carried out when establishing or maintaining Epstein-related accounts, and Reuters could not determine the nature or extent of such compliance steps from the documents.
Morgan Stanley was among a number of major U.S. and international banks that maintained varying degrees of relationships with Epstein and related entities over the years. The records note that JPMorgan had been Epstein’s bank from 1998 until it ended that relationship in 2013. Deutsche Bank told Epstein in December 2018 it intended to close his accounts and completed the closures after his July 2019 arrest, according to previously reported information included in the DOJ materials. Deutsche Bank declined to comment for this report. JPMorgan confirmed to Reuters for the story that it had terminated banking ties with Epstein in 2013.
Summary
Emails and letters published by the U.S. Justice Department show Morgan Stanley opened and later closed accounts for trusts tied to Jeffrey Epstein between 2015 and 2019. Those activities occurred after Epstein’s 2008 conviction and during a period when other major banks were severing ties. Epstein’s accountant, Richard Kahn, managed communications with the bank and served as an estate executor that oversaw multimillion-dollar settlements and restitution paid to victims.
Key points
- Morgan Stanley had account openings and closures connected to Epstein-related trusts between 2015 and 2019, including a confirmed 2015 funded account and an account opened for Butterfly Trust in 2019.
- Communications in the DOJ release show Epstein’s accountant Richard Kahn as the primary point of contact; Kahn and Darren Indyke are named as executors of Epstein’s estate which paid $105 million to the U.S. Virgin Islands and established a $121 million restitution fund.
- The bank’s account actions occurred while other large institutions - including JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank - moved to cut or notify of termination of relations with Epstein, underscoring differential approaches across the banking and wealth-management sectors.
Risks and uncertainties
- Regulatory scrutiny and compliance exposure - The DOJ documents do not reveal the specific customer due‑diligence steps Morgan Stanley took when opening Epstein-related accounts, leaving uncertainty about the bank’s compliance processes. This affects risk assessment for the banking and wealth-management sectors.
- Reputational and operational risk - Continued or renewed account activity tied to a convicted offender during a period of heightened public attention raises potential reputational risks for firms involved, particularly in private banking and wealth-management divisions.
- Incomplete public record - Redacted and corrupted portions of the released files limit the ability to fully determine amounts, account names and the timing of some actions, creating uncertainty about the exact sequence and magnitude of the account activity disclosed.
Tags: banks, wealth, compliance, legal, finance
Executives, lawyers and requests for comment
The DOJ materials show Morgan Stanley designated its internal risk officer to handle the 2017 termination notice, and the bank declined to comment on its Epstein-related relationships when contacted. Lawyers for the estate executors did not respond to requests for comment. Reuters, in reporting on the documents, said it found no evidence in the released records of direct communications from Epstein to Morgan Stanley or of misconduct by the bank or the estate executors.
The documents offer a partial record of how certain financial institutions engaged with Epstein-linked entities during a period of heightened scrutiny and legal action, and they leave open questions about the precise compliance steps taken when accounts were opened, funded or closed.