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JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon will face federal prosecutors under oath over his bank’s decision to keep pedophile Jeffrey Epstein as a client despite his sex trafficking.
Dimon is scheduled to give a sworn deposition behind closed doors in May financial times reported, as part of two cases brought against the largest US bank by an alleged victim from Epstein and the US Virgin Islands, where the disgraced financier had a home.
The lawsuits allege that JPMorgan, where Epstein’s bank operated from 1998 to 2013, profited from human trafficking and ignored internal warnings about their clients’ illegal activities.
A pre-trial investigation later found that Dimon had conducted a type of “revision” about the bank’s relationship with Epstein in the years leading up to his arrest.
But the bank has repeatedly denied that Dimon ever conducted any such audit, calling the lawsuits against it “without merit.” Instead, bank officials attempted to shift the blame for his business dealings with Epstein to former CEO James Edward “Jess” Staley.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon is set to give sworn testimony about his bank’s dealings with sexual pest Jeffrey Epstein at a closed hearing in May. Filmed here last month
The US Virgin Islands has sued the bank alleging it knew about Epstein’s outrageous behavior for years, but turned a blind eye.
JPMorgan Chase’s lawyers have repeatedly denied that Dimon was involved in Epstein’s sex trafficking scheme, with one person familiar with an internal investigation telling the Financial Times there is no record of Dimon having been in direct contact with Epstein or being included in any discussions about retaining him. as a customer.
This lawsuit, and another filed by one of his alleged victims, alleges that the bank profited financially from its relationship with the disgraced financier
But attorneys have previously resisted attempts to impeach Dimon and tried to limit the scope of documents turned over during the pre-trial process.
Instead, the bank opposed Staley, arguing that it should be liable for JPMorgan’s financial damages if a federal judge finds that the bank did indeed benefit from its relationship with Epstein.
The lawsuit also demands that Staley return wages he paid from 2006 to 2012, which could run into tens of millions of dollars, according to Reuters.
Lawyers allege that Staley witnessed and participated in sexual crimes in Epstein’s residences, and he claims he did not disclose it “although he had a fiduciary duty” to do so.
Staley was known to have shared a close relationship with Epstein over the years, with the pair occasionally taking trips together.
In total, he is said to have exchanged nearly 1,200 emails with Epstein from his JPMorgan Chase account from 2008 until 2012, when Epstein had more than $120 million in assets in the bank.
While still a high-ranking JPMorgan executive, Staley is said to have visited Epstein in prison after he was found guilty of soliciting prostitution of a minor in 2008.
But Staley has not been convicted of any Epstein-related crimes.
He left JPMorgan in 2013 and became CEO of Barclays in 2015. He then resigned in 2021 to contest regulators’ findings about his relationship with Epstein.
The UK-based bank has now admitted that the latest allegations against the former CEO were “serious”.
Former JPMorgan Chase CEO James ‘Jes’ Staley (left) with Jeffrey Epstein in 2011. The photo was taken after Epstein was convicted of soliciting underage girls in 2008
After the full extent of Epstein’s crimes became known in 2019, Staley initially claimed that he and Epstein had more than just work-related acquaintances.
In its lawsuit against JPMorgan in December, the US Virgin Islands alleged that the bank “had more than a close eye on Epstein’s sex trafficking.”
It also said the bank had “ignored obvious red flags regarding Epstein’s accounts”.
Epstein conducted much of his criminal activities on Little St. James Island, a private island he owns off the coast off the St. James Islands.
The government further alleged that JPMorgan exposed more than enough of Epstein’s accounts to determine that he was engaged in criminal conduct on its territory.
Last week, federal Judge Jed Rakoff allowed that lawsuit to proceed — along with one brought by an alleged victim of Epstein and another against Deutsche Bank on similar charges.
JPMorgan was also ordered to turn over documents containing communications involving Dimon and former general counsel Steve Cutler prior to 2006, when Epstein was first arrested.
Besides Dimon, other senior officials at the bank, such as Mary Erdos, head of the bank’s $4 trillion asset and wealth management business, are also expected to be removed before the bank faces trial in both cases in October.
JPMorgan has been contacted for comment.