JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon faces deposition in Jeffrey Epstein lawsuits


JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon talks to reporters as he leaves the U.S. Capitol after an unannounced assembly with U.S. Senate Majority Leader Schumer that was reportedly about the potential of the U.S. defaulting on its debt, outdoors 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 financial institution’s New York headquarters for lawsuits that accuse the corporate of facilitating and taking advantage of sex trafficking by its long-time buyer Jeffrey Epstein.

Dimon and JPMorgan, which denies any wrongdoing and legal responsibility in the cases, 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 largest financial institution in the United States, 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 in the complaints in U.S. District Court in Manhattan of doing so in order to maintain Epstein, who stored tens of tens of millions of {dollars} in accounts there, regardless of inside considerations about his slimy popularity.

The Virgin Islands says Epstein used frequent money withdrawals he comprised of these accounts to pay for younger ladies to journey to the American territory in order that he and others may 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’ swimsuit says.

Dimon’s deposition is being taken in personal. The questions he’s requested and the solutions he provides would solely grow to be public if they’re used in court docket filings and proceedings, or if they’re leaked.

JPMorgan did not instantly reply to CNBC’s request for remark.

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In addition to questioning Dimon beneath oath, the Virgin Islands has issued a flurry of subpoenas in search of paperwork associated to Epstein and JPMorgan from quite a lot 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 Page and Sergey Brin, former Disney government Michael Ovitz, Hyatt Hotels government chairman Thomas Pritzker and Mort Zuckerman, the billionaire actual property investor.

Dimon’s deposition comes greater than every week after Deutsche Bank agreed to pay $75 million to Epstein victims to settle a would-be class motion lawsuit by certainly one of his accusers. Deutsche Bank had taken on Epstein as a buyer after JPMorgan severed ties with him in 2013, after holding him as a consumer for 15 years.

JPMorgan has mentioned Dimon had not reviewed Epstein’s accounts when he was a consumer there from 1998 by 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 criticism, has mentioned that any civil legal responsibility it will have from Epstein’s conduct is the accountability of its former government Jes Staley, who was a buddy of Epstein and his essential enterprise contact on the financial institution.

Staley, who additionally denies any wrongdoing, earlier this week misplaced a bid to dismiss JPMorgan’s criticism towards him, which amongst different issues seeks to recoup $80 million in compensation from him.

In addition to attempting to shift blame to Staley, JPMorgan this week in a court docket submitting accused the Virgin Islands of being “complicit in the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein.”

The submitting mentioned the Virgin Islands seemed the opposite manner 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 children of John de Jongh and his spouse, Cecile, when John served as Virgin Islands governor and when Cecile labored for Epstein managing his corporations in the territory.

Cecile additionally allegedly made efforts to safe scholar visas for younger ladies related to Epstein, and was his “main conduit for spreading cash and affect all through the USVI authorities.”

The Washington Post 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 e-mail to a different financial institution government after she came upon Epstein’s standing as a intercourse offender because of his Florid conviction had been affirmed, The Washington Post reported.

The newspaper mentioned that was “at the very least the sixth time Erdoes … had been alerted to Epstein’s felony or civil authorized bother for intercourse crimes.”



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