Harry Beller isn’t one of the boldfaced names who can be found all over Jeffrey Epstein’s social calendar and emails, like former Barclays CEO Jes Staley, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, or Prince Andrew.
But for years, Beller was entrusted with managing some of the most delicate parts of Epstein’s financial life.
Beller was part of a tight-knit team working for Epstein, who killed himself in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. He worked under the direction of Richard Kahn, Epstein’s top in-house accountant.
Congressional investigators interested in how Epstein made and spent his money — and whether banks ignored red flags that should have alerted them to sex-trafficking — now have Beller in their crosshairs.
In lawsuits involving Epstein, Beller comes across as something of a financial Forrest Gump — turning up repeatedly in the paper trail. He hasn’t been named as a defendant in any of the lawsuits, but his name crops up on incorporation papers for Epstein’s web of companies, on Ghislaine Maxwell’s tax forms, on checks, and on cash withdrawal records for Epstein’s bank accounts, which for years were held by JPMorgan Chase.
Civil lawsuits say HBRK — a company owned by Epstein and managed by Beller and Kahn — facilitated Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation, although they do not name him or the company as defendants. Beller’s name is on corporate records and tax documents entered into evidence at Maxwell’s criminal trial, at which she was convicted of trafficking girls to Epstein for sex and later sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee want to subpoena banks for their financial records about Beller and other people who did business with Epstein. Sen. Ron Wyden asked both the Treasury Department and JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon to produce records from Epstein-related accounts, including those opened by Beller.
Beller hasn’t been accused of any crimes and there is no record of a federal agency pursuing an enforcement action against him. Through his attorney, Jonathan Sack, Beller declined to comment for this story.
A foot soldier in Epstein’s financial life for 22 years, Beller could help shed light on Epstein’s vast fortune — how he amassed it, and what he did with all his money.
The 69-year-old accountant personally handled some of the cash withdrawals from Epstein’s account, which became a catalyst for Epstein’s messy breakup with JPMorgan years after the financier pleaded guilty to sex crimes in 2008.
Those cash withdrawals should have been a bright red flag for potential financial crimes, such as money laundering, according to Martin Sheil, a former IRS criminal investigator. Beller’s perspective might help explain what Epstein was doing with the money, and what JPMorgan may have known about it at the time.
“Rich folks generally don’t deal in cash, and banks know that,” Sheil told Business Insider.
The cash withdrawals
When JPMorgan decided to cut ties with Epstein in 2013, bank officials said they were concerned with the predator’s frequent cash withdrawals.
Beller was often the person who physically withdrew the cash from Epstein’s accounts, recently unsealed court records show.
He worked for Epstein between 1992 and 2014, and his withdrawals of large amounts of cash from Epstein’s accounts with the bank were the subject of at least four federally mandated Suspicious Activity Reports, or SARs, for concerning transactions. The earliest SAR was filed in 2002 — long before Florida police began investigating Epstein’s abuse of girls.
Banks are typically wary of large cash transactions, since they can exchange hands without clear oversight. “Know Your Customer” rules require financial institutions to monitor where clients’ money is going to ensure it’s not tied to fraud, money laundering, or human trafficking.
Internal JPMorgan communications and copies of the SARs the bank filed with the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network show that Beller sometimes withdrew tens of thousands of dollars at a time.
Since JPMorgan believed Epstein was a financial advisor for billionaires, those cash withdrawals should have raised more severe alarms, according to Sheil, the former IRS criminal investigator.
“His business is to provide tax or investment advice to rich, wealthy clients,” Sheil told Business Insider. “And to have this account come in to make these large cash withdrawals? Well, what’s the basis for that? That’s not normal business for an investment advisor.”
In the flagged transactions, Beller always went to the same JPMorgan location: 270 Park Avenue, the bank’s headquarters, which CEO Jamie Dimon recently razed to the ground and replaced with a new office tower for employees.
The repeated visits to the same JPMorgan location should have also raised questions within the bank, said Sarah Krissoff, a former Manhattan federal prosecutor.
“The first time something happens, or the second time, it is going to draw less scrutiny,” said Krissoff, now a white-collar defense attorney at Cozen O’Connor. “As something becomes a pattern, it should be raising more red flags.”
JPMorgan’s SARs became public last month in a now-settled lawsuit between the US Virgin Islands government and the bank.
In the 2002 report, JPMorgan flagged for the Treasury Department that Beller had withdrawn substantial amounts of cash over the span of about three months. The report shows the bank was concerned the withdrawals from Epstein’s accounts could be part of a money laundering operation.
According to the 2002 report, Beller made 16 different cash withdrawals of about $9,800 each (the maximum allowed was $10,000) and cashed one $40,000 check from one of Epstein’s accounts.
Beller — but, not Epstein — was the subject of the 2002 SAR, which a former FBI special agent hired by the US Virgin Islands to analyze the report flagged as unusual.
“If the intention on the part of JPMC was to adequately report the activity, then the SAR would have been filed against Jeffrey Epstein himself, not only against Beller,” the former FBI agent wrote. “Beller was Epstein’s accountant.”
Court records show JPMorgan taking issue with Beller’s cash withdrawals a decade later. An email exchange between bank employees in 2012, obtained in the lawsuit, shows them expressing concern over $100,000 in cash withdrawn from Hyperion Air, a corporate entity that held Epstein’s private jet.
Beller signed the checks for the withdrawals, one employee said. In response, a JPMorgan executive wrote that Epstein said the cash was taken out to pay for fuel in foreign countries, and that the bank ought to check that with Beller.
“Perhaps the next best step is for us to speak with Harry, who we know, and ask Harry about the cash withdrawals,” John R. Duffy, then the CEO of JPMorgan’s private banking division, wrote. “Agree? Concerns?”
It’s not clear from the court documents whether any of the JPMorgan employees ultimately spoke to Beller about the transactions. A separate 2023 report, commissioned by the US Virgin Islands and written by a forensic accountant with access to internal JPMorgan documents, said there’s no evidence the bank ever asked for receipts or other documentation to say the cash was used for fuel.
JPMorgan filed three additional SARs after cutting ties with Epstein in the wake of media reports about the pedophile. In 2015, the bank flagged transactions between 2006 and 2007, the years Florida law enforcement investigated his sexual abuse of teenage girls. The bank filed two other SARs in August and September of 2019, after Epstein’s arrest on federal sex-trafficking charges and death. They covered transactions between 2003 and 2019 in accounts belonging to Epstein as well as several of his associates, including Beller.
“We regret any association we had with the man, but wouldn’t have kept him as a client had we known of his heinous crimes,” JPMorgan Chase spokesperson Patricia Wexler told Business Insider. “The Federal government had much more information on his activities that they did not share with us at the time.”
Following a Truth Social post from Trump on Friday, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that the US Attorney’s office in Manhattan would investigate JPMorgan’s relationship with Epstein, along with several prominent Democrats with ties to the pedophile.
Epstein’s money man
A pair of lawsuits filed earlier this year by Epstein victims against banks allege Epstein used HBRK to set up fake companies, send hush money and other illegal payments to his sex-trafficking victims, and “otherwise develop false schemes to protect the operation and control the victims.”
The suits say HBRK stands for Harry Beller and Richard Kahn, its “founding members” and longtime Epstein accountants. Like Beller and HBRK, Kahn is not named as a defendant in those lawsuits.
Kahn has managed the affairs of the $630 million estate Epstein left after his 2019 death, along with the financier’s longtime personal lawyer Darren Indyke. An attorney for the co-executors didn’t immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment for this story.
Beyond Epstein’s operations, testimony from Beller could give the public a glimpse of the kind of financial advice Epstein gave to his handful of billionaire clients.
Those clients, including former Victoria’s Secret CEO Les Wexner and ex-Apollo CEO Leon Black, have said Epstein provided valuable services to manage their own fortunes. Epstein’s work for Black helped the billionaire save as much as $2 billion in taxes, for which Epstein was compensated around $170 million.
On his LinkedIn page, Beller described his time working for Epstein — which is listed as from 1992 to 2014 — as work for “New York Strategy Group LLC.” Court records describe the company as Epstein’s money management firm. On Beller’s LinkedIn page, it’s described as “a financial advisory firm servicing high net worth individuals with assets in excess of 1 billion dollars.” Beller, who retains a CPA license and lives in upstate New York, now works at a small NYC-based accounting firm.
Sigrid McCawley, an attorney at Boies Schiller Flexner who brought the lawsuits against the banks on behalf of Epstein victims, said Beller was someone who “knows the inner workings” of how Epstein used the financial system.
“He was the accountant part of that enterprise, with Khan, whose hands are all over this,” McCawley told Business Insider. “So I do think he is a significant person of interest in this.”
Beller was forced to testify last year in a deposition in another lawsuit brought by McCawley, against Indyke and Kahn.
When asked about HBRK, he “invoked the Fifth Amendment instead of responding to document subpoenas or substantively answering questions,” McCawley wrote in one court filing.
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