Romania, mentioned in the Epstein File. New documents from the US Justice show payments of over 30,000 euros to a woman from Iași
The Department of Justice of the United States published thousands of documents from the Epstein File on Friday, and among them there are also direct references to Romania. The documents are part of a large series of declassified documents regarding the investigations that targeted the American financier Jeffrey Epstein, convicted of sex crimes and trafficking of minors.
Jeffrey Epstein. PHOTO: archive
According to one of the documents, an internal report by JPMorgan's AML (Anti-Money Laundering) compliance group showed that nearly two-thirds of women trafficked for prostitution worldwide came from Eastern Europe. Among the countries mentioned as the main sources are Albania, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.
The documents also show that JPMorgan had information that Epstein made more than $1.2 million in payments between 2003 and 2008 to girls and women, many with Eastern European surnames.
The bank allegedly continued to handle such transactions for several years, including after Epstein was no longer a customer, totaling nearly $3 million. Since 2008, some payments have been directed to locations considered high-risk, such as Belarus, Lithuania and Russia, G4Media reports.
A Romanian woman also appears in the published documents, in a file targeting the COUQ Foundation, Inc., a tax-exempt non-profit organization run by Epstein. The foundation's 2012 tax return lists Jeffrey Epstein as president, along with Richard Kahn (treasurer) and Darren K. Indyke (vice president).
According to documents reviewed by investigators, the foundation made payments to women totaling more than $30,000, including 137 transfers to people who had also received money from other Epstein accounts. One of the documents indicates a transfer of over 30,000 euros to an account opened at Banca Transilvania, in Iași, belonging to a woman whose name was anonymized by American justice.
The official justification for these withdrawals was said to be fuel expenses for overseas travel, but the documents show that there were no receipts or other evidence to support these explanations.
Investigators point out that the pattern of massive cash withdrawals is highly suspicious, especially in light of Epstein's criminal record.
The release of the documents is based on a law recently passed by the US Congress and signed by President Donald Trump. The files appear to be related to the three major investigations into Epstein in 2005, 2008 and 2019, and include photos and transcripts of messages. However, the Trump administration has been criticized by Democratic lawmakers and some Republicans for not releasing the documents in full by a legal deadline.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said that “this is not a transparent approach”, while Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche stated that more than 1,200 identified victims must be protected, which is why hundreds of thousands of pages are still being analyzed and partially censored. Other documents are to be published in the coming weeks.
At first glance, the documents do not bring major revelations, but they bring back to attention big names like Bill Clinton, who appears in several photos with Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's former partner, sentenced to 20 years in prison for complicity in sex trafficking with minors. Representatives of the former US president claim that he was unaware of Epstein's crimes at the time.
Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide in 2019 in a New York prison while on remand. Epstein, who was 66, was awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges at the time of his death.
