JPMorgan is resisting calls for its CEO to be made to answer questions under oath in a lawsuit that alleges the bank played a role in the crimes of notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The U.S. Virgin Islands is seeking damages from JPMorgan over its links to Epstein, claiming the banking giant “turned a blind eye to evidence of human trafficking” on his private island there because of the deals and clients he promised to bring to the company.
The lawsuit, filed in December, accused JPMorgan of facilitating and benefiting from Epstein’s sex trafficking.
On Feb. 23, the U.S. Virgin Islands filed documents to the court to demand JPMorgan submit further documents from its CEO, Jamie Dimon. The territory’s legal representatives argued that although they had been given documents from Dimon dating to 2014, the bank’s relationship with Epstein may have continued until 2019.
They demanded documents from Dimon dating between 2015 and 2019, labeling him “a likely source of relevant and unique information” on the bank’s decisions surrounding Epstein.
The Financial Times reported that lawyers also wanted Dimon to be deposed, claiming he played a role in JPMorgan's decision to continue to provide banking services to Epstein despite red flags about his activity.
However, in documents filed to a New York court on Tuesday—seen by news agency Reuters—America’s biggest bank accused the U.S. Virgin Islands of using Dimon to gain media attention by making demands to further investigate its CEO.
Lawyers for the lender said Dimon himself had not been involved in any decision making when it came to Epstein’s account with the bank. They also noted that Epstein had been dropped as a client in 2013.
“Dimon is not relevant to this action," JPMorgan’s lawyers said. "If there were evidence supporting discovery from JPMorgan Chase from 2014 to 2019, [the U.S. Virgin Islands] would have found it.”
Representatives for JPMorgan declined to comment on the latest developments in the case.
Lawyers for the U.S. Virgin Islands were not immediately available when contacted by Fortune.
While JPMorgan insisted Dimon should not be compelled to answer lawyers' questions, it did agree to find a date in March for a top executive, Mary Erdoes, to be deposed in the case, according to the FT. Erdoes heads up JPMorgan’s asset and wealth management division, where Epstein was a client.
In Tuesday’s filing, JPMorgan’s legal team also hit out at the U.S. Virgin Islands, labeling its demands for documents a “fishing expedition.” The bank said the territory had already obtained a “massive trove” of information in earlier lawsuits against Epstein’s estate, where it had been awarded more than $105 million.
Epstein victims case
Separately on Tuesday, JPMorgan’s lawyers asked a judge to throw out a demand for documents from Epstein victims in their own case against the company.
JPMorgan, alongside Deutsche Bank, is being sued by Epstein accusers over claims the banks aided and benefited financially from Epstein’s trafficking operation. The lawsuit is separate to the one filed by the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Dimon is not a defendant in either case.
Both of the lawsuits draw on Epstein’s relationship with Jes Staley, who served as a private banking executive at JPMorgan before becoming CEO of Barclays in 2015. Staley stepped down from Barclays in 2021 amid a probe into his friendship with the disgraced financier—but he reportedly received a payoff worth around $2.8 million.
Epstein was a powerful financier who died of an apparent suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking and conspiracy charges—his alleged crimes included paying girls under the age of 18 to perform sex acts.
Epstein’s accusers have alleged that Little St. James—his private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands—was central to his sex trafficking ring.
The disgraced money manager served 13 months of an 18-month prison sentence between 2008 and 2009 for soliciting a minor—identified in court papers as a 14-year-old girl—for prostitution. He avoided federal charges, which would have meant a life sentence, thanks to a plea bargain described by the Miami Herald as the “deal of a century.”
The billionaire and registered sex offender was arrested and charged with sex trafficking charges in July 2019.
Last year, Ghislaine Maxwell, a former socialite and long-time associate of Epstein, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for procuring teenage girls for Epstein to abuse.
