Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking ring have written to JPMorgan Chase’s top executives pleading with them to admit what they knew about the paedophile’s offending, as the banking giant faces two lawsuits alleging it was complicit in financing the decades-long scheme.
The US Virgin Islands and several Epstein victims are suing JPMorgan in federal court in New York for allegedly turning a blind eye to the late financier’s sex-trafficking and abuse of underage girls.
CEO Jamie Dimon was questioned under oath last month where he denied having any contact with Epstein or even having heard of the disgraced paedophile until after his arrest in 2019, according to a transcript of the deposition.
Mr Dimon also testified during the deposition that he didn’t recall receiving a letter from one of Epstein’s victims, but said he had “enormous sympathy” for them and was prepared to make a personal apology.
The survivor who wrote to Mr Dimon was Haley Robson, who was a high school student when she was recruited by Epstein, the Daily Beast revealed after obtaining a copy of her letter.
“Dear Jamie Dimon, I cannot begin to explain how Epstein has consumed my life,” Ms Robson, who has previously spoken out about the abuse, wrote.
“I cannot make you see, force you to feel or even request that you show compassion to all the survivors.
“I don’t understand how so many people, colleagues, knew what was going on, or had evidence and information that could have helped us, and chose not to speak up,” she said.
Ms Robson went on to reference a smear campaign by Epstein’s attorneys against the victims after his conviction for soliciting prostitution from young girls in 2008.
“Why did we all get picked apart publicly when the reality is you and many more knew something and didn’t speak up?” she asked.
“If you are a good human you will just admit to making a mistake and be the first to try to do what is right to end this chapter on a positive note for all of us.”
Another survivor, Courtney Wild, wrote to JPMorgan executive Mary Erdoes last month asking her to support the victims’ quest for justice, the Daily Beast reported.
Ms Wild wrote that she believed JPMorgan was “Epstein’s right hand man in allowing him to become the most abusive sex offender in history.”
“Yet, rather than acknowledging a wrong doing, accepting responsibility, making an apology to all of us, and doing what is right, I understand that JP Morgan has unleashed an army of lawyers to torture the victims who brought the cases and put them through even more pain and suffering,” she wrote.
“Does nobody at JP Morgan have a conscience?”
Another unnamed victim wrote to Ms Erdoes last year about how she was abused by Epstein during a job interview.
Ms Erdoes, JPMorgan’s asset and wealth management CEO, sat for a deposition in April in the lawsuit in April, where she testified that she had visited Epstein’s townhouse twice and exchanged emails and phone calls with him.
She admitted being aware of accusations against Epstein as early as 2006, seven years before JPMorgan cut ties with him.
The US Virgin Islands lawsuit alleges that JPMorgan’s Rapid Response Team raised red flags as early as 2006 that Epstein was making cash withdrawals of between $40,000 and $80,000 several times each month, totalling over $750,000 per year.
In March, a judge ruled that both the USVI and victims’ lawsuits could proceed, and ordered JPMorgan to hand over its records on Epstein.
JPMorgan has sought to blame former executive Jes Staley, who had close ties to Epstein, and filed a so-called third-party complaint against him claiming he was solely liable.
A JPMorgan spokesperson declined to comment when contacted by The Independent.
Epstein died aged 66 in a Manhattan detention facility while awaiting trial on sex trafficking and abuse charges.
His death was ruled a suicide by the medical examiner.
The lawsuits claim that JPMorgan concealed wire and cash transactions that were part of a “criminal enterprise whose currency was for the sexual servitude of dozens of women and girls in and beyond the Virgin Islands.”
Deutsche Bank last month paid $75m to settle a lawsuit brought by Epstein’s victims alleging it had been complicit in his offending.
