JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon talks to reporters as he leaves the U.S. Capitol following an unannounced conference with U.S. Senate Greater part Chief Schumer that was reportedly about the possibility of the U.S. defaulting on its credit card debt, outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, May 17, 2023.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon was set to be deposed Friday at his bank’s New York headquarters for lawsuits that accuse the business of facilitating and profiting from sexual intercourse trafficking by its extensive-time client Jeffrey Epstein.
Dimon and JPMorgan, which denies any wrongdoing and liability in the circumstances, before lost an work to dismiss the fits by the plaintiffs – the authorities of the U.S. Virgin Islands and an nameless Epstein accuser.
The fits assert that JPMorgan, the greatest lender in the United States, retained Epstein as a shopper even immediately after understanding he was remaining investigated for sexually abusing underage women in Florida and just after he pleaded responsible in a point out demand there in 2008 to having to pay for intercourse from a small.
The bank is accused in the grievances in U.S. District Court in Manhattan of carrying out so in buy to continue to keep Epstein, who held tens of tens of millions of dollars in accounts there, even with inner considerations about his slimy name.
The Virgin Islands states Epstein utilised repeated income withdrawals he produced from these accounts to pay out for youthful ladies to journey to the American territory so that he and other people could abuse them at his home on a non-public island he owned.
“Human trafficking was the [principal] business enterprise of the accounts Epstein taken care of at JPMorgan,” the Virgin Islands’ match says.
Dimon’s deposition is getting taken in non-public. The queries he is asked and the solutions he provides would only grow to be general public if they are made use of in courtroom filings and proceedings, or if they are leaked.
JPMorgan didn’t right away react to CNBC’s request for comment.
In addition to questioning Dimon less than oath, the Virgin Islands has issued a flurry of subpoenas looking for paperwork related to Epstein and JPMorgan from a range of high-profile people the authorities suspects Epstein attempted to recruit as fellow customers of the lender.
They incorporate Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Google co-founders Larry Webpage and Sergey Brin, former Disney govt Michael Ovitz, Hyatt Inns government chairman Thomas Pritzker and Mort Zuckerman, the billionaire real estate investor.
Dimon’s deposition comes a lot more than a 7 days after Deutsche Financial institution agreed to pay $75 million to Epstein victims to settle a would-be course action lawsuit by 1 of his accusers. Deutsche Lender had taken on Epstein as a consumer following JPMorgan severed ties with him in 2013, just after maintaining him as a consumer for 15 a long time.
JPMorgan has stated Dimon experienced not reviewed Epstein’s accounts when he was a consumer there from 1998 through 2013, the year that JPMorgan severed its romantic relationship with him.
Epstein died six yrs later on from suicide in a New York jail a thirty day period soon after federal authorities charged him with trafficking girls for sexual intercourse.
JPMorgan pushes again
JPMorgan, in a related grievance, has claimed that any civil legal responsibility it would have from Epstein’s perform is the accountability of its previous executive Jes Staley, who was a mate of Epstein and his principal business call at the financial institution.
Staley, who also denies any wrongdoing, earlier this week lost a bid to dismiss JPMorgan’s criticism towards him, which among other points seeks to recoup $80 million in payment from him.
In addition to making an attempt to shift blame to Staley, JPMorgan this 7 days in a courtroom submitting accused the Virgin Islands of becoming “complicit in the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein.”
The filing reported the Virgin Islands looked the other way as Epstein trafficked younger women since he was giving superior-ranking officers there money, tips and favors.
The filing specifically says that Epstein paid out tuition for the youngsters of John de Jongh and his spouse, Cecile, when John served as Virgin Islands governor and when Cecile labored for Epstein managing his businesses in the territory.
Cecile also allegedly designed endeavours to secure university student visas for youthful women connected to Epstein, and was his “main conduit for spreading money and impact all through the USVI governing administration.”
The Washington Write-up on Friday printed specifics of a deposition earlier taken of Mary Erdoes, who operates JPMorgan’s asset and prosperity administration division.
“Oh boy,” Erdoes wrote in a 2011 email to one more financial institution govt after she discovered out Epstein’s position as a intercourse offender as a result of his Florid conviction experienced been affirmed, The Washington Submit noted.
The newspaper said that was “at minimum the sixth time Erdoes … had been alerted to Epstein’s criminal or civil lawful difficulty for sexual intercourse crimes.”
