Mary Erdoes

Mary Callahan Erdoes is an American banker who has worked at JPMorgan Chase since before 2005, served as chief executive of its private bank from March 2005 to September 2009, and has been chief executive of its asset management business, later Asset and Wealth Management, since September 2009, as a member of the Operating Committee under Jamie Dimon. During the private-bank years she reported to Jes Staley, and across both posts she was among the executives who oversaw the bank's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, a client from 1998 until he was asked to leave in 2013. JPMorgan has stated that, with the exception of Staley, its executives "acted with integrity" in the Epstein matter; Erdoes has not been charged with any offense or disciplined by any regulator.¹²³⁴

Career at JPMorgan

JPMorgan Chase's annual reports record that before 2005 Erdoes "was responsible for investment solutions and strategy for private banking clients worldwide," that she was chief executive of Private Banking from March 2005 to September 2009, and that she became chief executive of Asset Management in September 2009, at age 42.¹ The Upper Tribunal in the Staley case described the reporting line in the same period: Staley ran JPMorgan's asset and wealth management business from 2001 to 2009, and "Ms Mary Erdoes, who then ran the Private Bank, reported to Mr Staley."²

On June 24, 2026 the independent members of JPMorgan Chase's Compensation and Management Development Committee approved one-time "Retention and Continuity" equity awards of 30 million dollars each to Doug Petno and Troy Rohrbaugh and 20 million dollars each to Erdoes and chief operating officer Jennifer Piepszak, designed, in the bank's words, "to preserve top qualified internal succession candidates" and cliff-vesting after three years.³ American Banker ranked her first on its 2025 list of the most powerful women in finance.⁴

The Epstein Relationship, 2006 to 2011

JPMorgan admitted in the Virgin Islands litigation that Erdoes, Catherine Keating and Mary Casey knew in 2006 that Epstein had been arrested for solicitation of prostitution, and that Erdoes "was involved in decision making with respect to maintaining Epstein as a customer." The territory's Second Amended Complaint stated that Erdoes "admitted in her deposition that JP Morgan was aware by 2006 that Epstein was accused of paying cash to have underage girls and young women brought to his home."⁵⁶

On July 25, 2006 Staley visited Epstein at his home, and the next day wrote to Erdoes: "I went and saw him last night. I've never seen him so shaken. He also adamantly denies the ages." At an October 2006 Rapid Response Team meeting, "after internal discussion with Jes Staley, Mary Erdoes, Catherine Keating, John Duffy and Mary Casey, it was decided that we will keep Mr. Epstein solely as a banking client and on a 'reactive', client service basis." In October 2007 Erdoes wanted to "move forward based on our earlier decision to continue doing business" with Epstein. His balances grew from about 32 million dollars in October 2006 to about 121.5 million dollars in July 2008.⁵

In 2006 Erdoes told a wealthy JPMorgan client who asked for help arranging a meeting with Epstein that she would be "calling [Epstein] tomorrow." On December 12, 2008, during the Bernard Madoff collapse, she wrote to Staley that "glenn and I have been going back and forth all night... We have HUNDREDS of clients with some. The ny/palm beach community will be in shock. Can you call JE to get scoop from down there?"⁵⁷

JPMorgan documents describe regular contact between Erdoes and Epstein in 2010 and 2011, including work on a proposed donor-advised fund for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. On May 24, 2011 she wrote to Epstein that she had missed his meeting "having been in an all day OC with Jamie. I hope the meeting went well. I'm anxious to hear." On July 10, 2011 Epstein wrote to her, "There are 21 million reasons I'd like to know when you return." In 2011 Staley told Epstein to "stop pushing" Erdoes, and Epstein replied, "On Mary Erdoes, I will ease off, I thought I was following plan." On January 20, 2012 she wished Epstein a happy birthday.⁷

Two of Epstein's 2011 emails to Erdoes and Staley set out the proposal. On July 27, 2011, copying Boris Nikolic, the chief science and technology adviser to Bill Gates, he wrote that "the mimimum donation would be 100 million," that "a portfolio will be established for each donor.according to their own critieria," with "silos for Medicine, Science , Women issues, Education, etc.," and that "the charitable fees. audit fees, investment mgmt fees, trustee fees, will all be JPM."⁸ On August 27, 2011 he warned them: "Careful, the people at Gates," naming four foundation staff and identifying two as "the senior people," "say they are getting confusing messages from JPM. They say that JPM wants to use the current foundation to do other things. Bill is at his country house. and most likely will not deal with it before wed."⁹

The e-comms summary that JPMorgan's compliance staff compiled in the fall of 2019 as part of the internal review called Project Jeep carried the heading: "Beginning in 2011 Jes Staley and Mary Erdoes have regular communication with Jeffrey Epstein relating to certain strategic initiatives and business proposals. There are occasional personal e-mails between Erdoes and Epstein interspersed within this time period." The Government of the United States Virgin Islands told the court in June 2023 that Project Jeep "was only first disclosed in a document produced the night before Mary Erdoes's deposition on March 15, 2023." JPMorgan's counsel responded that the summary was a post-2019 compilation by employees with no contemporaneous knowledge of the relationship and that almost all of the underlying emails had been produced months earlier.¹⁰¹¹

In July 2011, after Epstein accepted a 21 million dollar settlement of his claims against Bear Stearns, general counsel Stephen Cutler wrote to Erdoes, "I would like to put it and HIM behind us. Not a person we should do business with, period," and the private bank's general counsel told her that Cutler had asked "when we are offboarding JE."⁵ Cutler later testified that Staley and Erdoes made the decision to keep Epstein as a client.¹² In a September 2012 email to Erdoes, David Brigstocke, chief financial officer of Asset and Wealth Management, described another client's house as reminding him "of JE's house, except it was more tasteful, and fewer nymphettes"; Erdoes replied, "Wow."⁵⁷

The 2013 Exit and the Black Referrals

A February 9, 2013 due-diligence report recorded that "Both Mary Erdoes and John Duffy are aware of the relationship." On July 19, 2013 John Duffy, chief executive of the U.S. private bank, sent Erdoes talking points for Epstein's exit: "The repetitive nature of your cash transactions is a problem for us... Remediation is required and we need to ask you, in an orderly manner, to find another bank for your needs." Erdoes replied, "I think that is fine."⁵⁷

On August 14, 2013 Duffy wrote to Erdoes that Epstein "maintains he will become Leon's primary advisor and will be calling the shots," and that he had "told [Epstein] that we would work with him as long as it was through the client accounts, JE Entities would not be acceptable. That's ok right?" Erdoes answered, "Y." Bankers under her division continued to meet Epstein about Leon Black's business after the exit, including a May 2015 email from Justin Nelson to Epstein about "a line of credit for Leon at JPM."⁷

Congressional Scrutiny

Senator Ron Wyden wrote to Dimon on September 24, 2025 citing reporting that Erdoes had been told in 2011 by the head of compliance that Epstein should be exited, that she visited Epstein's townhouse in 2011 to present a 9 million dollar settlement payment, and that she confronted him in 2013 about "the repetitive nature of his cash transactions"; he asked whether JPMorgan had ever investigated Erdoes internally.¹³ JPMorgan's October 10, 2025 reply did not answer the questions and stated that "with the exception of former JPMC executive Jes Staley, the Firm's executives (current and former) are respected professionals who acted with integrity."¹⁴ Wyden's August 4, 2026 report named Erdoes among thirteen bankers whose conduct it said merited investigation by prosecutors and regulators.⁷