Financial institution of America’s Merrill Lynch Wealth Administration unit fired veteran dealer Paul V. Morris over “conduct inconsistent with agency requirements,” in keeping with a regulatory submitting.
The submitting sheds mild on the explanation for Morris’ departure, which was reported in June when his agency web site was taken offline. Morris, who had been a managing director at Merrill’s personal wealth unit serving the ultra-rich, had drawn renewed scrutiny earlier this yr after his identify appeared in a trove of Division of Justice information associated to disgraced intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Registration paperwork maintained by state regulators present that Merrill fired Morris on Could 28, the identical day that Bloomberg printed a narrative detailing how Morris had continued to courtroom Epstein within the months main as much as his loss of life in a Manhattan jail.
Merrill’s termination discover, which it filed with regulators on June 18, didn’t elaborate on the allegations except for noting that the conduct “didn’t contain agency clients or buyer accounts.”
A Merrill spokesperson didn’t instantly return a request for remark. Financial institution of America in March agreed to pay $72.5 million to settle a putative class motion declare introduced by Epstein victims who accused the financial institution of aiding in his sex-trafficking.
Morris didn’t return a message despatched via social media. He has not registered with one other agency, in keeping with BrokerCheck, which doesn’t embody a disclosure of the discharge as a result of it didn’t embody allegations of buyer hurt.
Morris was not named as a defendant within the Financial institution of America case or others introduced in opposition to his former employers, together with JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Deutsche Financial institution. He has not been accused of a criminal offense. Epstein was by no means a shopper of Merrill, in keeping with Bloomberg.
Morris had labored with him at JPMorgan Chase & Co. and after transferring in 2012 to Deutsche Financial institution, which added Epstein as a shopper after JPMorgan expelled him in 2013, in keeping with DOJ paperwork.
Morris was credited within the DOJ filings with wooing Epstein to Deutsche Financial institution that yr.
“Nice information! Congrats Paul,” former Deutsche Wealth head Chip Packard wrote in an electronic mail included within the information.
Morris continued to correspond with Epstein after becoming a member of Merrill in 2016. In 2017, Morris requested if he knew anybody who could be excited by loans for an plane, yacht or art work. He despatched presents to Epstein’s assistant the next yr and emailed Epstein in January 2019 about Alternative Zone investments and once more in July with a capital markets outlook.
Morris began his profession at UBS predecessor PaineWebber in 1996, joined Merrill for the primary time in 1997 and shifted to Barclays in 2003 earlier than becoming a member of JPMorgan in 2009, in keeping with BrokerCheck.
Morris’ departure is one other occasion of monetary advisors dealing with scrutiny over relationships with Epstein or these in his orbit. A high UBS workforce managed practically $20 million for Epstein’s one-time girlfriend and convicted intercourse trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell for years regardless of mounting public scrutiny over her ties to the late financier.