JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon talks to reporters as he leaves the U.S. Capitol after an unannounced assembly with U.S. Senate Majority Chief Schumer that was reportedly about the potential of the U.S. defaulting on its debt, exterior the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Might 17, 2023.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon was set to be deposed Friday at his financial institution’s New York headquarters for lawsuits that accuse the corporate of facilitating and taking advantage of intercourse trafficking by its long-time buyer Jeffrey Epstein.
Dimon and JPMorgan, which denies any wrongdoing and legal responsibility within the circumstances, earlier misplaced an effort to dismiss the fits by the plaintiffs – the federal government of the U.S. Virgin Islands and an nameless Epstein accuser.
The fits declare that JPMorgan, the most important financial institution in the USA, stored Epstein as a buyer even after studying he was being investigated for sexually abusing underage ladies in Florida and after he pleaded responsible in a state cost there in 2008 to paying for intercourse from a minor.
The financial institution is accused within the complaints in U.S. District Courtroom in Manhattan of doing so with the intention to maintain Epstein, who stored tens of tens of millions of {dollars} in accounts there, regardless of inner considerations about his slimy popularity.
The Virgin Islands says Epstein used frequent money withdrawals he constituted of these accounts to pay for younger ladies to journey to the American territory in order that he and others might abuse them at his residence on a personal island he owned.
“Human trafficking was the [principal] enterprise of the accounts Epstein maintained at JPMorgan,” the Virgin Islands’ go well with says.
Dimon’s deposition is being taken in personal. The questions he’s requested and the solutions he offers would solely grow to be public if they’re utilized in courtroom filings and proceedings, or if they’re leaked.
JPMorgan did not instantly reply to CNBC’s request for remark.
Along with questioning Dimon beneath oath, the Virgin Islands has issued a flurry of subpoenas in search of paperwork associated to Epstein and JPMorgan from plenty of high-profile individuals the federal government suspects Epstein tried to recruit as fellow shoppers of the financial institution.
They embody Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Google co-founders Larry Web page and Sergey Brin, former Disney government Michael Ovitz, Hyatt Inns government chairman Thomas Pritzker and Mort Zuckerman, the billionaire actual property investor.
Dimon’s deposition comes greater than every week after Deutsche Financial institution agreed to pay $75 million to Epstein victims to settle a would-be class motion lawsuit by considered one of his accusers. Deutsche Financial institution had taken on Epstein as a buyer after JPMorgan severed ties with him in 2013, after conserving him as a shopper for 15 years.
JPMorgan has stated Dimon had not reviewed Epstein’s accounts when he was a shopper there from 1998 by way of 2013, the yr that JPMorgan severed its relationship with him.
Epstein died six years later from suicide in a New York jail a month after federal authorities charged him with trafficking ladies for intercourse.
JPMorgan pushes again
JPMorgan, in a associated grievance, has stated that any civil legal responsibility it will have from Epstein’s conduct is the duty of its former government Jes Staley, who was a pal of Epstein and his important enterprise contact on the financial institution.
Staley, who additionally denies any wrongdoing, earlier this week misplaced a bid to dismiss JPMorgan’s grievance towards him, which amongst different issues seeks to recoup $80 million in compensation from him.
Along with making an attempt to shift blame to Staley, JPMorgan this week in a courtroom submitting accused the Virgin Islands of being “complicit within the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein.”
The submitting stated the Virgin Islands regarded the opposite means as Epstein trafficked younger ladies as a result of he was giving high-ranking officers there cash, recommendation and favors.
The submitting particularly says that Epstein paid tuition for the kids of John de Jongh and his spouse, Cecile, when John served as Virgin Islands governor and when Cecile labored for Epstein managing his corporations within the territory.
Cecile additionally allegedly made efforts to safe pupil visas for younger ladies linked to Epstein, and was his “main conduit for spreading cash and affect all through the USVI authorities.”
The Washington Publish on Friday revealed particulars of a deposition earlier taken of Mary Erdoes, who runs JPMorgan’s asset and wealth administration division.
“Oh boy,” Erdoes wrote in a 2011 electronic mail to a different financial institution government after she discovered Epstein’s standing as a intercourse offender because of his Florid conviction had been affirmed, The Washington Publish reported.
The newspaper stated that was “not less than the sixth time Erdoes … had been alerted to Epstein’s legal or civil authorized hassle for intercourse crimes.”
This text was initially revealed by cnbc.com. Learn the unique article right here.
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