By Saeed Azhar and Pritam Biswas
June 1 (Reuters) – Paul V. Morris, a private wealth adviser whose name appeared in the Department of Justice files on disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has left his position at Merrill Lynch, a unit of Bank of America, a company spokesperson said.
A company spokesperson confirmed the departure, first reported by Bloomberg News, but the spokesperson declined to specify when it occurred. There was no indication whether his departure was related to his ties to Epstein.
Morris joined Merrill in August 2016, his LinkedIn profile shows. The Epstein documents showed that in his role at Merrill, Morris was in touch with Epstein’s assistant and the financier’s accountant between 2017 and 2018.
Morris previously held positions at JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank, DoJ documents show. His name appears several times in the Epstein files. In one file, his name appeared as part of a JPMorgan team that approved Epstein as a client in 2011.
JPMorgan, the largest U.S. bank, faces lawsuits from women who claim Epstein sexually abused them, as well as litigation from the U.S. Virgin Islands, where Epstein maintained a residence.
Epstein was not a client of Merrill Lynch, the wealth management arm of Bank of America, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Morris could not be reached by telephone, and did not immediately reply to a request for comment on LinkedIn or his Merrill Lynch email.
Morris had consulted Epstein repeatedly after joining Bank of America, according to Bloomberg.
Morris led the Morris Group within Merrill Private Wealth Management, his LinkedIn profile shows.
Scrutiny has intensified on the ties between major financial institutions and Epstein, who died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. Epstein’s death at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City was ruled suicide.
The Wall Street Journal previously reported that JPMorgan Chase bankers continued to meet with Epstein even after the bank decided to close his accounts in 2013.
Similarly, Department of Justice files revealed that Deutsche Bank continued to service Epstein’s accounts after informing him in late 2018 that it would end their relationship, only fully severing ties following his arrest in July 2019.
(Reporting by Saeed Azhar in New York and Pritam Biswas in Bengaluru; additional reporting by Nupur Anand in New York; Editing by David Gregorio)
