JPMorgan Chase was conscious by 2006 that Jeffrey Epstein had been accused of paying money to have “underage ladies and younger girls” dropped at his residence — seven years earlier than the financial institution dropped him as a shopper, authorized filings in New York on Wednesday alleged.
Mary Erdoes, now head of asset administration on the US financial institution, stated underneath oath in a latest deposition that JPMorgan knew concerning the accusations by 2006, legal professionals wrote in newly unredacted parts of a lawsuit filed in opposition to the financial institution by the US Virgin Islands, the place Epstein had a house.
“In 2010, JPMorgan compliance officers determined that Epstein ‘ought to go’,” in response to the filings. The financial institution finally ended its relationship with Epstein in 2013.
The USVI is in search of damages from JPMorgan, claiming it benefited from human trafficking by persevering with to maintain Epstein as a shopper even after he was arrested in 2006 on a state cost of procuring a minor for prostitution in Florida. The disgraced financier died by suicide in 2019 whereas in jail awaiting trial on federal expenses.
Attorneys for the USVI offered particulars of inside emails within the years following the arrest between JPMorgan staff and executives, together with Erdoes and Jes Staley, who dealt with the financial institution’s relationship with Epstein.
The 66-year-old Staley, who later turned the boss of Barclays, is being sued by JPMorgan after an alleged Epstein sufferer stated he had personally abused her. Staley has denied the allegations, describing them as “slanderous” and “baseless however severe”.
The emails contained references to information tales about Epstein’s alleged participation in baby trafficking and the abuse of women as younger as 14, the USVI stated.
A JPMorgan compliance memo despatched in 2011 famous that “Epstein had settled a dozen civil lawsuits out of court docket from his victims concerning solicitation for an undisclosed quantity”. A senior compliance official wrote that there was “Plenty of smoke. Plenty of questions.”
One other message despatched in 2011 promised to “monitor the accounts and money utilization carefully going ahead”, the criticism added. Epstein withdrew massive quantities of money yearly throughout the time he banked with JPMorgan, the USVI claimed. That included “greater than $800,000 per yr in 2004 and 2005”.
Erdoes testified that the choice to terminate Epstein as a buyer was made after “she turned conscious that the withdrawals have been ‘precise money’,” the USVI stated, referring to paper banknotes.
The USVI has beforehand alleged that senior JPMorgan executives joked about Epstein’s proclivities. In its submitting on Wednesday, the territory claimed that in 2008 Erdoes acquired an e-mail asking her whether or not Epstein was at an occasion “with Miley Cyrus”, who was no older than 16 on the time.
The submitting comes days after longstanding chief government Jamie Dimon informed CNN that JPMorgan has “among the finest legal professionals on the planet” working in compliance “who evaluate all of these items and make selections on the time based mostly on what they know”.
When requested if the financial institution ought to have stored Epstein as a shopper after his 2008 conviction, Dimon added “hindsight is a wonderful reward”.
Dimon is about to be questioned underneath oath subsequent month about his information of the choice to retain Epstein. He has denied being concerned in any evaluate of Epstein’s account.
JPMorgan declined to remark. It has beforehand described the lawsuit as meritless. One particular person conversant in the matter stated the financial institution turned conscious of the accusations after studying newspaper experiences of Epstein’s arrest.
