Epstein’s Brokerage Trail: Fidelity and the Millions That Moved Before His Arrest

Fidelity opened a brokerage account for a Jeffrey Epstein-owned company in mid-April 2019, just months before Epstein’s July 2019 arrest and at a time when public outrage over his earlier sweetheart deal was already intensifying. The account was opened for Southern Trust Company, Epstein’s Virgin Islands-based entity, and it received more than $5 million before Fidelity apparently moved to restrict it to “closing transactions only” in late May 2019. The account was disclosed in a suspicious activity report filed after Epstein’s arrest, and the details came from a Justice Department file that was briefly released as part of Epstein-related disclosures before later being replaced with a fully redacted version.

The timing is the central issue: Fidelity opened the account after the Miami Herald’s major 2018 reporting had renewed scrutiny of Epstein, after a federal judge ruled that DOJ had violated victims’ rights in the 2008 deal, and after more than 100 lawmakers had demanded that DOJ reopen the Epstein investigation. The Fidelity account reportedly moved millions, including funds wired from Deutsche Bank and later large transfers to Puerto Rican banks, before the account appeared to be emptied by the time Fidelity filed its SAR. The revelation adds Fidelity to the list of major financial institutions that handled Epstein-linked money, alongside JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank, and Charles Schwab, and it raises the same core question that has followed the Epstein money trail for years: why did powerful financial institutions continue servicing him even when the public record already made him radioactive?


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Fidelity opened account for Epstein, even as outrage grew - ICIJ