Among the trove of material released as part of the US government’s Jeffrey Epstein investigation is a stash of Deutsche Bank AG files that shed light on one of global finance’s most private corners.
Around 40,000 documents from Germany’s biggest lender reveal details of family offices for some of the world’s wealthiest people — caught up in the US Department of Justice’s massive data dump simply because they shared the same banker as the deceased sex offender.
The latest cache is causing consternation for those named in Deutsche Bank’s disclosures, raising concern over unwarranted harm to their reputations through details — such as bank account numbers — they thought just weeks ago remained outside the public domain.
The DoJ is already facing criticism for heavily redacting some documents while failing to take enough precautions with some sensitive material, including the names and images of victims from Epstein’s criminal activity.
For Deutsche Bank, the new details on its historical ties to Epstein sets back a long-running effort to shake off the lender’s previous reputation as a magnet for scandals. Even in recent months, German authorities have raided its offices looking at past dealings indirectly linked to the now-sanctioned billionaire Roman Abramovich.
Public exposure remains the exception for family offices, not the rule, according to Martin Roll, a global family business strategist and senior adviser at McKinsey & Co..
“This type of disclosure is highly unusual” he said. “Information about family offices rarely comes to light unless it surfaces through litigation, regulatory filings, banking disputes, or other extraordinary events.”
Representatives for Deutsche Bank declined to comment, as did the DoJ, which was mandated through the Epstein Files Transparency Act to release documents regardless of the knock-on effects for government officials, public figures or foreign dignitaries.
Some of the most detailed Deutsche Bank files center on the dynasty behind the world’s biggest maker of home furnishings, the Waneks. Their rags-to-riches journey is one more often found in pages extolling modern-day symbols of the American Dream rather than DoJ documents.
The Ashley Furniture Industries owners’ expectations for returns from their family office, Third Lake Capital, are often “unrealistic,” according to a client profile of the firm that was part of Deutsche Bank’s 2018 business plans. The once-confidential note also cites a “debate” between the Waneks and their family office’s staff over how they were hiking equity allocations — exposing tensions typically confined to meetings in the enclaves of the rich and their advisors’ sleek offices.
“The family has started to increase the annual distributions they take from Ashley, so their investing has ramped up,” added the note on Third Lake. “Despite the sophistication of the family office, however, the family tends to shy away from complex investments,” it said.
A representative for the Waneks, who aren’t accused of any wrongdoing, declined to comment. Headed by Ron Wanek, Ashley Furniture’s octogenarian chairman, they have a net worth of about $8 billion through their Arcadia, Wisconsin-based furniture-maker, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
In a Feb. 5 post on X, Ashley Furniture said neither the company nor its owners “ever” had any business, financial or personal relationship with Epstein. This followed social media users posting a list of Deutsche Bank accounts that included those for the billionaire family and the late financier.
Epstein spent decades cultivating ties to elite figures worldwide, spanning prominent financiers, entrepreneurs, politicians and even royals. Along with JPMorgan Chase & Co., Deutsche Bank served as one of Epstein’s main financial institutions, leading to account balances, emails between executives and even plans for ritzy events becoming part of the DoJ’s pile of documents. Epstein’s victims accused both banks of ignoring red flags in order to profit from his business
Other family offices named in client profiles for Deutsche Bank’s 2018 plans include Madison Park Capital, an entity within buyout firm General Atlantic that helps to manage its executives’ fortunes. The firm’s partners represented a “substantial opportunity” due to their interest in a wide range of asset classes, spanning collateralized loan obligations to real estate, the Deutsche Bank documents show.
Safanad, a private investment firm for Saudi Arabian tycoon Kamal Bahamdan, is described in another client profile as a prospect for opportunities in data-centers and aviation finance. At the time of writing, Deutsche Bank had a “monthly” contact with the money manager, cited as a mix of a family office, asset manager and endowment fund with backing from the Bahamdan dynasty’s namesake conglomerate.
Deutsche Bank’s client profiles beyond family offices span possible residency changes, estate plans and Wall Street banking relations for the descendants of US energy tycoon George Lindemann and real estate magnate Tony Deering.
The Jockey Club — a breed registry for racehorses in North America founded in 1894 — is also among the client profiles for the Frankfurt-based lender, underscoring the vast breadth of documents in the so-called Epstein Files.
“What makes disclosures of this nature notable is not that wealthy families invest through structured entities — that is entirely standard — but that third-party documentation can reveal insights into investment strategies, staffing structures, or even internal dynamics,” Roll said, referring to Deutsche Bank’s files. Such “public visibility can amplify internal disagreements, succession sensitivities, or ownership tensions.”
The Deutsche Bank disclosures within the roughly 3.5 million pages of emails, flight logs and other documents in the Epstein files coincide with a boom in the population of family offices to oversee everything from the financial affairs to the personal security of the world’s ultra-wealthy.
The closely held firms have pushed into markets for venture capital, real estate and even buyouts for listed companies in recent years as their operations have grown in size and sophistication. As they typically oversee the fortunes of a small group of individuals, family offices often don’t face the same requirements as institutional firms to disclose their investments, allowing them to stay below-the-radar.
At least a fifth of the world’s 500 richest people on Bloomberg’s wealth index now have a family office, helping oversee fortunes totaling more than $5 trillion.
They include Caxton Associates founder Bruce Kovner, whose family office caught the attention of Deutsche Bank bosses in 2014 amid growing competition for global banks like the German lender to attract them as clients.
“Need to get you in there,” one US wealth executive said to a Deutsche Bank colleague in an email that year. “Asap.”
The individual uniting the client profiles reviewed by Bloomberg is Stewart Oldfield, a Credit Suisse veteran who joined Deutsche Bank in 2014, shortly after JPMorgan ended its roughly 15-year relationship with Epstein and the German lender became his main financial institution.
Named as the first contact on each client profile, the senior private banker took on Epstein’s account in 2017 and set about trying to develop a relationship with the financier and his family office, Southern Financial. Epstein invested in a similar way to a hedge fund professional who wanted direct access to Deutsche Bank’s structured trading desk and the lender’s best allocation ideas, according to a client profile on Epstein’s family office.
‘Most Challenging’ Client
“Jeffrey is one of our most sophisticated clients,” it said. He “has also been our most challenging.”
Oldfield, who didn’t respond to requests for comment, left Deutsche Bank in 2020, when he was discharged from the firm due to a “lack of expected” diligence over a client relationship, filings show. There is no suggestion he was aware of Epstein’s crimes.
Deutsche Bank severed its relationship with Epstein the year earlier, shortly before federal authorities charged him with sex-trafficking offenses and his subsequent death in a Manhattan prison cell that was ruled as a suicide. Deutsche Bank has paid more than $200 million in total fines and lawsuit settlements in relation to its past dealings with Epstein, without admitting any wrongdoing.
In the years following Deutsche Bank producing its profile on the Waneks’ private investment firm, Third Lake has recruited new senior staff and sought to upgrade its internal operating systems. It’s also helped to establish a namesake firm that’s open to capital from other members of the world’s super-rich, following in the footsteps of other large family offices.
An executive at the offshoot firm, Third Lake Partners, is a familiar face for the Waneks’ family office team: Stewart Oldfield.
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