JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon to be deposed in Epstein lawsuits
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon is scheduled to be deposed this month in lawsuits involving the bank’s former client and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a JPMorgan Chase spokesperson confirmed to NBC News.
The U.S. Virgin Islands and a women identified as “Jane Doe 1” sued JPMorgan Chase last year, accusing the Wall Street giant of turning a “blind eye” toward Epstein’s conduct and enabling Epstein’s sex-trafficking enterprise. The two suits seek monetary damages.
JPMorgan Chase has denied liability.
In a recent amended complaint, the U.S. Virgin Islands alleged that the financial institution continued to do business with Epstein, despite executives being aware of multiple sexual abuse and trafficking allegations against the convicted sex offender.
“JPMorgan’s relationship with Epstein in allowing his sex-trafficking venture to access large sums of cash each year went far beyond a normal (and lawful) banking relationship,” the complaint read.
JPMorgan Chase executive Mary Erdoes “admitted in her deposition that JPMorgan was aware by 2006 that Epstein was accused of paying cash to have underage girls and young women brought to his home,” according to the filing.
In 2006, the financial institution’s rapid response team noted that Epstein "'routinely' made cash withdrawals in amounts from $40,000 to $80,000 several times per month,” the complaint said. The withdraws amounted to more than $750,000 per year, according to the suit.
Epstein’s conduct was “so widely known” at the financial institution that executives “joked about Epstein’s interest in young girls,” citing a 2008 email that Erdoes received asking her if Epstein was at an event with Miley Cyrus, the complaint said.
JPMorgan Chase did business with Epstein until 2013. In 2008, Epstein was convicted of procuring a child for prostitution. He died in 2019 by suicide at a Manhattan correctional center where he was being held on federal sex-trafficking charges.
In 2010, the financial institution’s risk management division flagged fresh accusations against Epstein.
“See below new allegations of an investigation related to child trafficking — are you still comfortable with this client who is now a registered sex offender,” according to an internal email included in the complaint.
The U.S. Virgin Islands said in court documents that “JPMorgan facilitated and concealed wire and cash transactions that raised suspicion of — and were in fact part of — a criminal enterprise whose currency was the sexual servitude of dozens of women and girls in and beyond the Virgin Islands.”
“Human trafficking was the principal business of the accounts Epstein maintained at JP Morgan,” the suit said.
Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/jpmorgan-ceo-jamie-dimon-deposed-epstein-lawsuits-rcna83163