On May 21, 2026, Donald Trump Jr., eldest son of U.S. President Donald Trump, married the socialite and influencer Bettina Anderson in West Palm Beach, Florida. They traveled to the Bahamas for a celebration that weekend.
In the wake of the news, posts appeared on social media claiming Anderson was "the daughter of Jeffrey Epstein's former banker." (The ties between Donald Trump and Epstein, the late financier and sex offender, loomed large over Trump's second presidential term, causing rifts within the Republican Party.)
Snopes readers wrote in looking for more information about the claim, which went on to state that Anderson's father was close enough with Epstein to provide a character reference letter in 1999.
We found it is mostly true — that is, there is substantial evidence confirming that Anderson is the daughter of Harry Loy Anderson Jr., and that Epstein held accounts at Harry Loy Anderson's bank, the Palm Beach National Bank and Trust. Records released through the Epstein Files Transparency Act showed that Harry Loy Anderson approved two applications Epstein filed for business credit cards in 2001 and 2002.
However, the claim is rated mostly true because Palm Beach National Bank and Trust was only one of the many banks that Epstein used to hold his fortune, and it it's unclear exactly how involved Anderson was in Epstein's finances.
The character letter referenced in the social media posts was first reported in The New York Times Magazine in December 2025. The report claimed the letter was located in the archives of journalist Wayne Barrett at the Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin. Snopes attempted to obtain a copy of that letter but was unable to at time of publication because it wasn't digitized.
As such, we cannot confirm the legitimacy of the character letter Harry Loy Anderson allegedly wrote for Epstein, though there is no reason to suspect it was fake.
We began our research by finding obituaries for Harry Loy Anderson, who died in 2013. All noted that he was survived by a large family, including Bettina Anderson, which confirmed the first part of the claim.
To address the claim that Harry Loy Anderson was Epstein's banker, we searched his name in the Department of Justice's database of files on Epstein. We found an email copy of Anderson's obituary sent to Epstein, and a large collection of financial documents involving Anderson, Palm Beach National Bank and Trust and Epstein.
One of those documents, a customer profile for Epstein from June 2002, revealed that Epstein held at least six accounts at the bank totaling around $2 million, the first of which was opened in March 1991. Harry Loy Anderson's name was listed as the "prim officer" on that customer profile, though it's unclear exactly what that title meant and what responsibilities came with it.
The documents involved two credit card applications Epstein filed with Palm Beach National Bank and Trust, one in August 2001 on behalf of NES LLC and the other in May 2002 for JEGE Inc.
Both companies listed Epstein as the sole owner, and according to emails included in the files, the credit cards had limits of $35,000 and $25,000, respectively. Harry Loy Anderson had to approve both credit cards, according to those emails, because Epstein declined to provide extensive financial information.
The applications listed NES' business as real estate. JEGE's business, meanwhile, was listed as "aircraft." (It was the business that officially owned the jet nicknamed the "Lolita Express.")
The documents provided clear enough evidence that Anderson and Epstein had a business relationship, though it was unclear to what extent Anderson could truly be considered "Epstein's banker." While there were several emails and letters between Palm Beach National Bank and Trust staffers and Epstein's associates discussing the business accounts, there were none from Anderson himself.