← The Epstein Chronicles
The Epstein Chronicles
Jeffrey Epstein And The Transcript From His 1981 SEC Deposition (Part 2) (7/26/26)
00:12:56
In April 1981, Jeffrey Epstein testified before the Securities and Exchange Commission as part of an inquiry involving trading in St. Joe Minerals securities. Epstein described himself as a limited partner and account executive at Bear Stearns who...
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Jeffrey Epstein
What's up everyone and welcome to another episode of the Epstein Chronicles. In this episode, we're going to pick up where we left off with the Jeffrey Epstein deposition with the SEC during the Bear Stearns investigation back in 1981. Question when did you resign from Bear Stearns? Answer March 12. Question and what was the reason for your resignation? Answer totally unrelated to St. Joe. Question may I have an answer to my question? What was the basis for your resignation? It was a disagreement with the way a situation was handled regarding potential violations of a red D. Question well, could you elaborate upon the situation you just spoke of? Mr. Layman jumps in. I believe I will allow the witness to go a little bit into the area. However, it apparently has nothing to do with whatever the subject of the formal order of investigation and I really hope that we don't dwell on this matter to the extent that he can briefly touch upon it. I'll allow him to go ahead. Okay, Epstein. There's a conflict that arose that I made people aware of personally when I found out a situation in discussions unrelated to one topic. It was brought to my attention to anyone to buy stock. It was my understanding that as a broker, I. I could not participate in any profits or losses. But I was not aware of the fact that you could not just strictly lend money to a friend. I in fact made two members of the Executive Committee aware of the fact that the full details involved in it, the way it was handled subsequently was offensive to me and I decided to resign. When did you have your first conversation with the executive committee? Approximately March 3rd. Do you know if the Executive Committee was aware of this incident prior to March 3rd? Epstein? Absolutely not. Do you know if any member of the Executive Committee were aware of the incident? Epstein? No question. Do you know how it first came to the attention of the Executive Committee when it was in a discussion regarding the distribution of new issues. They'd asked me a question, have I lent money to someone to buy stocks? And I said absolutely not. But in fact, was that a question? Then I learned that a broker could not, in fact Lend money. And I in one instance did lend money to a friend. Question and you say it was in connection with what this came up in connection with an offering Answer no, no. It was in connection with a discussion regarding someone, a client of mine's account and the way they had received new issue distributions. Question Answer and do you remember what the new issue distribution was? It was a series of new issue distribution. It wasn't a new issue distribution. Mr. Layman, are you asking for the name of the security Question yes. The transaction that prompted Mr. Layman why don't you just tell him the securities? Epstein it was a series of new issued distributions. It wasn't a one transaction. They wanted to know in fact, they were asking questions about why I had a client who had received a series of new issues, not one particular one. Question and in that connection that they asked you if you had any loaned money to any customers Answer that's correct. Question now who was it that asked you this? Epstein it was redacted, as in my letter of resignation. Redacted and redacted to members of the executive committee. Question and did anyone else participate in in the conversation? Answer no. Question and what happened? Did they maybe you can just give me a little bit more of a narrative on this. They ask you in connection with this one particular matter if you had loaned any money to customers and you said no. Answer they were talking about that's right, if I had lent money to the particular customer. Question and you ask them why is that a problem in words or substance? Is that correct? Answer that is correct. Question Answer and then they explained that if it was a problem to you, is that correct? Answer Correct Question and then when did you tell them gets cut off by Epstein Immediately I said well, approximately six or seven months ago I did lend money in one instance to my closest friend and the record would show that in fact that was the case. Question the record would show that you had loaned the money. Answer that's right. Question how would that show because it was right on his account. Statement that my check was deposited in his account. There was no attempt to conceal anything. I understand that, but did it say on the statement that the check was deposited as a loan? No. What did these two individuals say? That is redacted and redacted. Just redacted. Mr. It ends with an S though, doesn't it Mr. Layman no. Redacted it does not. Mr. Layman no. Epstein they said that it was a possible violation of red D and they'd look into it. Question did they at any point suggest that there would be any action taken. Answer they said that the issue could be series or serious and they would look into it and see what should be done. Question did they ask you how much money you had loaned to your customer? Answer yes, sir. Question and what was your answer? Answer it was 15,000. And did they ask you if the loan had been paid off? Yes, it was. Yes. And was in fact the loan paid off? Yes. Mr. Lamon, I think we're beyond the scope of the formal order at this point. Can I ask that the questions be directed to the questions concerning Joe's Minerals? We will reserve our right to come back to this area if it's appropriate, Mr. Layman. Okay. When was your next meeting, if any meeting after the first one? Answer it was the subsequent two days. Question. You're talking about March 5th now. Answer March 4th. I believe March 3rd was the first meeting and the fourth and the fifth. Question did anyone additional to redacted and redacted participate in the subsequent meetings? Answer no. Question Was anyone else present other than those two individuals and yourself? Answer no. Question Were any matters other than the matters discussed at the first meeting discussed at these later meetings? Answer no. Question did you have any meetings with these gentlemen subsequent to those two meetings? Answer not regarding anything to do with this. Redacted. This being Epstein, this being the issue of the loan to the customer that's described in my resignation. Question did you have any occasion to meet with any members of the executive committee the week of March 9th? Answer which is the following week? Yes. Question when was the first meeting? Answer I believe it was Tuesday. Again, I'm not sure of my dates. It was a Tuesday that I met with redacted and redacted. Again. Question Anyone else present? Answer no. Question what was the nature of the discussion at that time? Answer the fact that they thought a $2,500 fine was an order for the violation. But since I had made a voluntary disclosure and it was a single instance. Did they indicate to you whether this matter had been discussed with anyone else on the executive committee? No. But in fact they had indicated that there was executive committee meetings going on regarding the subject. When did that come to your attention? Answer probably on the first day. Was it the third that this is an area that these two people had been assigned to questioned by the executive committee to explore? Answer Right. Did they indicate to you who on the executive committee had asked them to look into this matter? Answer no. Question did you ever come to learn who asked them to look into the matter? Answer the executive committee? I Don't know. Question Both of these individuals are members of the committee. Answer that's correct. Mr. Layman, just to clarify, I'm not sure that either redacted or redacted are in fact members of the executive committee. Redacted and redacted. But what Whether the executive committee has seven members. Redacted may in fact be a member. Epstein jumps in and may be redacted as of May 1st. But he's. There's a question in my mind as to whether or not they're actually members.
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Jeffrey Epstein
Question during the course of any of your meetings with redacted, was St. Joe Mineral Corporation discussed at any of these meetings? No. Did you have occasion to speak with anyone else on the executive committee or any members of the executive committee regarding St. Joe Minerals? No. Did it ever come to your attention that certain individuals at the firm were trading in St. Joe Minerals during the week of March 9th? After our discussions on an informal basis, yes. Are you referring to the discussion you and council and I had last week? I believe it was. Answer that is correct. Question I think it was on Friday or Thursday. And that was the first that you were aware of it? Answer I was aware that there was an investigation into members of the firm, as far as I knew, who had participated in saying Joe. That's all I knew. Question how did that come to your attention? Answer it was hearsay around the firm. It was no specific individual. Redacted. When did you become aware of that, Epstein? It's hard to say. I'm not really sure. Question Was it before or after you resigned? Oh, after. After you resigned, did you continue to come into the office? Yes. For how long? Off and on. Continuously. I'm cleaning out my office. Do you still have access to that office now? That's correct. When were you there Most recently? Friday. Mr. Layman? He was there today. The witness. Oh, yeah, today. Sorry. Question Prior to today, when was the last time you were there? Answer Friday. Question of last week. Epstein. Yes, sir. Question did you have any occasion to meet with anyone while you were in the office there on Friday? Answer. Many different brokers who came in to talk to me. Question. Did you have occasion to speak with any members of the Executive Committee while you were there on Friday? Answer no. Question. Have you had any discussions with any of the Executive Committee since the date of your letter of resignation, which I believe is March 12, 1981? Answer yes, I have. Question. You've had conversations with them? Answer yes. Question and with whom have you spoken? Answer. Redacted. Redacted and a brief discussion right after the resignation with redacted. Question. When was your conversation with redacted or conversations? Answer Continuously. I'd say not Friday but the 25th. When I handed in my thing, I handed it to redacted. Question did you discuss this matter with redacted at the time? Answer which matter? Question. The matter you said you had handed in a certain document. Are you referring to this document, Division Exhibit 2? Yes. And what was the nature of the conversation you had when Division Exhibit 2 was was tendered to? Redacted. Just that. Here's my resignation. The full letter that accompanied my resignation. Question what prompted this letter? Answer by Epstein? My wanting to make the facts known because I wanted it clear to people why I had left the firm. Question. Take a look. When you had just answered, you were referring to a letter that's prepared by you, is that correct? That is correct. And it was sent to the Executive Committee. Answer was delivered to redacted by myself on March 25th. Question and would you take a look at what's been marked as Exhibit 2? Answer yeah, that's it. Question Prior to your submission of this letter, Division Exhibit 2, had you submitted anything else to Bear Stearns indicating that you were resigning or about to resign? Answer yeah, I handed in a letter on March 12. It was a simple statement that I would like to resign from the firm as a limited partner. Question I show you what's been marked, what we've marked into evidence as Division Exhibit 3. It's the first page of Exhibit 3. Would you read that into the record, please? With this letter and accompanying statement, I hereby resign as a limited partner at Bear Stearns, effective immediately. Question now, sir, the letter that's been tender to us dated March 12, and as you just read back for the record, speaks of an accompanying statement. Answer. Right. I didn't make that accompanying statement available to the Executive Committee until I was sure that I was comfortable with what I had written and handed it to them on the 25th. You provided no other written documents to the Executive committee besides the one page document that's dated March 12th on March 12th, which is the first page of Division Exhibit 3. Is that correct? Answer that's correct. On March 12th. That's the only thing that I handed them. All right, folks, that's gonna do it for this one. And in the next episode dealing with the topic, we're gonna pick up where we left off. All the information that goes with this episode can be found in the description box.
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