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JPMorgan Chase held a bank account for Epstein for 15 years until 2013. That’s five additional years after it was publicly known in 2008 that Epstein had pleaded guilty to soliciting sex with a minor, became a registered sex offender, and had spent time in jail. (Banks are required under law to “know your customer (KYC),” prevent illicit money dealings, and report suspicions of money laundering to FinCen, a unit of the U.S. Treasury.)

The Southern District of New York, home to some of the biggest and most powerful Wall Street banks and their attorneys, who cycle in and out of jobs in that office, might have a strong reason to want to keep Giuffre’s claims out of this case. Giuffre has stated the following in a previous court filing against Epstein:

“In addition to being continually exploited to satisfy Defendant’s every sexual whim, Plaintiff was also required to be sexually exploited by Defendant’s adult male peers, including royalty, politicians, academicians, businessmen, and/or other professional and personal acquaintances…most of these acts of abuse occurred during a time when Defendant knew that Plaintiff was approximately 15, 16 and 17 years old…”

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Jensen criticized the state Department of Health in April for following federal guidance stipulating when doctors should characterize deaths as due to COVID-19. He said he feared that the death toll might be inflated if each state’s allocation of federal funds depended on the number of COVID-19 deaths.

Besides West’s Yeezy brand and law firms connected to famed trial lawyer David Boies and Trump defense attorney Marc Kasowitz, recipients of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans included the PF Chang’s restaurant chain and businesses linked to several members of Congress, according to US media reports.

The controversy is the latest to befall the PPP, which was launched in April as a key job-saving program in the immediate wake of coronavirus shutdowns that shuttered countless businesses and led to tens of millions of layoffs.

The program provides forgivable loans to coronavirus-impacted small businesses to cover employee salaries and some expenses.

Architects of the program at the US Treasury Department and Small Business Administration emphasized the need to make money immediately available to embattled companies.

That led to heavy criticism after large, publicly traded firms such as Ruth’s Chris steakhouse snagged loans from the program, which had been pitched as a savior for mom-and-pop businesses.

The Treasury Department subsequently tightened the rules to exclude larger companies with access to funds from public markets.

The Trump administration defended the program Monday as it released identifying data on firms accounting for about 75 percent of the more than $520 billion lent so far. The administration had resisted releasing the information, but relented following bipartisan calls for transparency.

“The PPP is providing much-needed relief to millions of American small businesses, supporting more than 51 million jobs and over 80 percent of all small business employees, who are the drivers of economic growth in our country,” US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.

– ‘Limited safeguards’ –

But the latest revelations seem certain to amplify questions about how the program has been administered.

The recipients include the Church of Scientology, various businesses connected to the family of Jared Kushner, a White House advisor and the husband of First Daughter Ivanka Trump, and Foremost Group, a shipping business owned by the family of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, the wife of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, according to reports in US media.

The New York State Department of Financial Services said that Deutsche Bank, which agreed to the payment under a consent order, “failed to properly monitor account activity conducted on behalf of the registered sex offender despite ample” public information about Mr. Epstein’s earlier criminal misconduct.

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The Financial Services Department said that because of the bank’s oversight failure with Epstein, the “bank processed hundreds of transactions totaling millions of dollars that, at the very least, should have prompted additional scrutiny in light of Mr. Epstein’s history.”

Those transactions include payments to people who were publicly alleged to have been Epstein’s co-conspirators in sexually abusing young women, and settlements totaling more than $7 million and payments to law firms of more than $6 million “for what appear to have been the legal expenses of Mr. Epstein and his co-conspirators,” the department said.

Other payments were made “to Russian models, payments for women’s school tuition, hotel and rent expenses, and (consistent with public allegations of prior wrongdoing) payments directly to numerous women with Eastern European surnames,” according to the department.

And the shocking rise in gunfire — to 116 incidents from 38 between June 15 and July 2, a 205 percent increase — meant scores more victims were hurt or killed by bullets this year over last year.

Gunshot injuries skyrocketed to 157 from 47 in 2019, a 238 percent increase.