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 testified at a deposition in New York on Friday that he had no involvement within the accounts of longtime buyer Jeffrey Epstein, the financial institution mentioned.
Dimon was being deposed for lawsuits accusing JPMorgan of facilitating and cashing in on Epstein’s intercourse trafficking of younger ladies, which he financed with cash he had on deposit there.
“Our CEO reaffirmed after his deposition that, as he has beforehand mentioned, that he by no means met with him, by no means emailed him, doesn’t recall ever discussing his accounts internally, and was not concerned in any selections about his account,” mentioned a financial institution spokeswoman. “There are thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of emails and different paperwork which have been produced on this case and never one comes near even suggesting that he had any function in selections about Epstein’s accounts.”
The spokeswoman added: “As we’ve got mentioned, we now know that Epstein’s conduct was monstrous, and his victims deserve justice. In hindsight, any affiliation with him was a mistake and we remorse it, however these fits are misdirected as we didn’t assist him commit his heinous crimes.”
Dimon gave his deposition at JPMorgan’s headquarters in Manhattan. The financial institution 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 america, stored Epstein as a buyer even after studying he was being investigated for sexually abusing underage women 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 a view to hold Epstein, who stored tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} in accounts there, regardless of inside considerations about his slimy status.
The Virgin Islands says Epstein used frequent money withdrawals he created from 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’ go well with says.
Dimon’s deposition was taken in non-public. The questions he was requested and the solutions he gave would solely turn out to be public if they’re utilized in court docket filings and proceedings, or if they’re leaked.
Additionally on Friday afternoon, Decide Jed Rakoff held a listening to on a request by attorneys for the accuser to certify her lawsuit as a category motion criticism, which may add dozens of potential accusers as plaintiffs. JPMorgan opposes that request. Rakoff is anticipated to rule by late June on that challenge.
Along with questioning Dimon beneath oath, the Virgin Islands has issued a flurry of subpoenas looking for paperwork associated to Epstein and JPMorgan from a lot of high-profile individuals the federal government suspects Epstein tried to recruit as fellow purchasers of the financial institution.
They embrace Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Google co-founders Larry Web page and Sergey Brin, former Disney government Michael Ovitz, Hyatt Accommodations government chairman Thomas Pritzker and Mort Zuckerman, the billionaire actual property investor.
Dimon’s deposition comes greater than per week after Deutsche Financial institution agreed to pay $75 million to Epstein victims to settle a would-be class motion lawsuit by one among his accusers. Deutsche Financial institution had taken on Epstein as a buyer after JPMorgan severed ties with him in 2013, after maintaining 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 women for intercourse.
JPMorgan pushes again
JPMorgan, in a associated criticism, has mentioned that any civil legal responsibility it could have from Epstein’s conduct is the accountability of its former government Jes Staley, who was a pal of Epstein and his predominant 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.
Along with making an attempt to shift blame to Staley, JPMorgan this week in a court docket submitting accused the Virgin Islands of being “complicit within the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein.”
The submitting mentioned the Virgin Islands regarded the opposite approach 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 firms within 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 Put up 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 Put up reported.
The newspaper mentioned that was “at the least the sixth time Erdoes … had been alerted to Epstein’s prison or civil authorized bother for intercourse crimes.”
