A private wealth manager who was identified in federal documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has departed from Merrill Lynch, according to a company representative.
Paul V. Morris, whose name surfaced in Department of Justice files concerning Epstein, is no longer with the Bank of America subsidiary, a company representative confirmed. The departure was initially disclosed by Bloomberg News.
The representative would not reveal the timing of Morris’s exit or clarify whether his departure was connected to his documented connections with Epstein.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Morris began working at Merrill in August 2016. Federal documents revealed that while employed there, Morris communicated with both Epstein’s personal assistant and his accountant during 2017 and 2018.
Department of Justice records indicate Morris previously worked at JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank. His name surfaces multiple times throughout the Epstein documentation. One document shows he was part of a JPMorgan team that gave approval for Epstein to become a client in 2011.
The nation’s largest bank, JPMorgan, currently faces legal action from women alleging Epstein sexually abused them, along with separate litigation from the U.S. Virgin Islands, where Epstein owned property.
A source with knowledge of the situation confirmed that Epstein was never a client of Merrill Lynch, Bank of America’s wealth management division.
Attempts to contact Morris by phone were unsuccessful, and he did not respond to messages sent through LinkedIn or his Merrill Lynch email address.
According to Bloomberg’s reporting, Morris maintained regular contact with Epstein following his employment at Bank of America.
Morris’s LinkedIn profile indicates he headed the Morris Group within Merrill Private Wealth Management.
Major financial institutions are facing increased examination regarding their connections to Epstein, who died in a New York City jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. Officials ruled his death at the Metropolitan Correctional Center a suicide.
The Wall Street Journal had previously disclosed that JPMorgan Chase executives continued meeting with Epstein even after the institution chose to terminate his accounts in 2013.
In a similar pattern, Department of Justice documentation showed that Deutsche Bank kept managing Epstein’s accounts after notifying him in late 2018 that their business relationship would end, finally cutting all connections only after his arrest in July 2019.
