Paul V. Morris, a veteran financial advisor whose name appeared in the Department of Justice files on disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has left his job in New York with Merrill Lynch, according to multiple news reports Monday.
In a 27-year career in the securities industry, Morris worked at multiple firms across Wall Street and most recently in Manhattan for Merrill Lynch, where he has been employed since 2016, according to his BrokerCheck profile.
A company spokesperson confirmed Morris leaving the firm, according to Reuters, but the spokesperson declined to say when he left. A Merrill Lynch spokesperson did not return a call from InvestmentNews on Tuesday to comment.
Bloomberg News first reported Morris no longer working at Merrill. There was no indication whether his departure was related to his ties to Epstein, according to Reuters.
“The Epstein documents showed that in his role at Merrill, Morris was in touch with Epstein's assistant and the financier's accountant between 2017 and 2018,” according to Reuters. “Morris previously held positions at JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank, Department of Justice documents show.”
“His name appears several times in the Epstein files,” Reuters reported. “In one file, his name appeared as part of a JPMorgan team that approved Epstein as a client in 2011.”
Morris led the Morris Group within Merrill Private Wealth Management, his LinkedIn profile shows.
Scrutiny has intensified on the ties between major financial institutions and Epstein, who died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges, Reuters noted.
Epstein's death at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City was ruled suicide.
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