Jeffrey Epstein in Cambridge, MA in 1984.
Rick Friedman | Corbis News | Getty Photos
JPMorgan Chase has racked up nearly $14 million in authorized expenses defending itself versus two lawsuits alleging it abetted the intercourse trafficking by its longtime buyer Jeffrey Epstein, in accordance to legal professionals for a previous major executive who claims he is staying scapegoated by the large financial institution.
Attorneys for previous JPMorgan govt Jes Staley exposed the rate full in a filing late Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
Staley’s filing was afterwards taken out from community check out on the courtroom docket.
On Thursday, his lawyers submitted a new version of the document that redacted the reference to the bank’s legal service fees.
The filing troubles JPMorgan’s use of a few money gurus to assist its lawful promises that Staley, a previous mate of Epstein, ought to be dependable for having to pay the financial institution hundreds of tens of millions of dollars to include charges linked to the lawsuits.
Staley’s legal professionals did not right away reply to a ask for for comment.
JP Morgan spokeswoman Patricia Wexler declined to comment on the bank’s purported authorized expenses from the match.
But in a assertion to CNBC, Wexler famous, “The two plaintiffs have accused Jes of unspeakable acts that experienced almost nothing to do with his task or responsibilities at our company.”
“In fact, Jane Doe herself has instantly accused him of horrific sexual misconduct. If these allegations are real, he will have to be held accountable,” claimed Wexler, making use of the pseudonym for the plaintiff in a single of the fits.
JPMorgan was sued past yr by “Doe” in a would-be class action scenario on behalf of herself and other youthful gals who had been trafficked by the late income supervisor Epstein.
The lender individually was sued by the govt of the U.S. Virgin Islands, wherever Epstein experienced managed a residence on a personal island, where he sexually abused girls.
Both of those suits declare that the lender facilitated and profited Epstein’s trafficking of women when he was a client from 1998 by means of 2013.
A attorney for the Virgin Islands during a court hearing this thirty day period stated that after Epstein killed himself in 2019, JPMorgan notified the Treasury Division of additional than $1 billion in transactions connected to “human trafficking” by Epstein courting back 16 decades.
JPMorgan in July agreed to spend $290 million to victims of Epstein to settle the initially lawsuit.
But the financial institution, which denies any wrongdoing is continuing to struggle the match by the Virgin Islands. That scenario is established to begin demo in late October.
Resource: Court docket filings by attorneys for former JPMorgan government Jes Staley
In March, JPMorgan sued Staley, its previous main of expenditure banking, alleging that he is legally dependable for “the full sum” of any damages it incurs from both equally lawsuits. The lender also is searching for to claw back a lot more than $80 million in compensation it paid out Staley in excess of the many years.
Staley, 66, is opposing the bank’s declare. He also has denied an allegation Doe that he sexually assaulted her.
In their filing Wednesday, Staley’s lawyers wrote, “The a single continuous in these similar scenarios has been JPMorgan’s attempt to pin the entirety of its problems with Jeffrey Epstein on its former government Jes Staley.”
“Consistent with this topic, the 3 industry experts whom the financial institution has retained to aid its third-occasion promises against Mr. Staley are focused on a single issue: How considerably need to Mr. Staley have to pay back?” the filing stated.
One professional, the accountant Edith Wong, has explained JPMorgan’s $290 settlement was “fair,” the filing stated.
And “Shelley Chapman, a retired individual bankruptcy choose, opines that JPMorgan’s $13.8 million in legal expenses in the Jane Doe and USVI scenarios was ‘reasonable,’ ” according to Staley’s filing.
The third expert, an accountant named Carlyn Irwin, extra up how considerably Staley earned at JPMorgan to evaluate how much could be clawed again by the bank if it wins its accommodate against Staley.
Staley’s attorneys wrote that “none of these experts’ opinions satisfies” a typical for the admissibility of pro opinions in federal courtroom.
JPMorgan is currently being represented by attorneys from the law company Wilmer Hale, including lover Felicia Ellsworth, who in 2020 co-edited an up-to-date lawful information on human trafficking for attorneys “to symbolize victims and keep on to make a distinction.”
The firm’s web page includes a statement on “modern slavery,” declaring, “We do not tolerate slavery, human trafficking or abusive or unfair procedure in any portion of our business or in any section of our offer chain.”
Epstein, a previous mate of Donald Trump and Invoice Clinton, killed himself in a New York jail at age 66 in August 2019, a month right after he was arrested on federal youngster intercourse trafficking prices.
