Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, testifies throughout the Senate Banking, Housing, and City Affairs Committee listening to titled Annual Oversight of the Nations Largest Banks, in Hart Constructing on Thursday, September 22, 2022.
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JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon may be questioned below oath for as much as seven hours over two days in depositions for federal lawsuits accusing his financial institution of complicity in intercourse trafficking by its late consumer Jeffrey Epstein, a decide mentioned Tuesday.
Dimon may be questioned for a mixed whole of 5 hours by attorneys for the U.S. Virgin Islands and an Epstein sexual abuse accuser, who’re the plaintiffs in two separate fits in Manhattan federal court docket, Decide Jed Rakoff mentioned throughout a phone convention with attorneys.
The JPMorgan CEO may be deposed individually for as much as two hours by attorneys for Jes Staley, the previous chief of funding banking at JPMorgan Chase, Rakoff mentioned, based on a court docket docket entry.
The decide mentioned he would possibly allow the depositions to transcend the time he has initially put aside.
JPMorgan has argued that Staley, and never the financial institution, is legally answerable for the fits associated to Epstein. The financial institution sued Staley final month, alleging that he hid his « inappropriate relationship » with Epstein.
Dimon’s depositions is not going to happen till Could, a supply conversant in the case informed CNBC. They probably will happen in New York Metropolis, the supply mentioned.
The financial institution contended Tuesday that questioning Dimon wouldn’t yield helpful info.
« The plaintiffs’ counsel know our CEO has no related data, however stick with this media stunt, » JPMorgan mentioned in an announcement.
« A overview of greater than 20 years of emails and different paperwork makes it clear that he had no involvement with Epstein or his accounts. He doesn’t recall ever assembly, talking or speaking with him, » the financial institution mentioned.
Rakoff final month rejected JPMorgan’s request to dismiss the lawsuits filed by the Virgin Islands and the Epstein accuser. The litigation alleges that the financial institution knowingly benefited from taking part in Epstein’s intercourse trafficking.
Epstein, a former good friend of ex-Presidents Donald Trump and Invoice Clinton, together with Britain’s Prince Andrew, was a JPMorgan consumer from 1998 by 2013. He killed himself in a Manhattan federal jail in 2019 whereas awaiting trial on felony youngster sex-trafficking prices.
The Virgin Islands’ lawsuit alleges that the financial institution « facilitated and hid wire and money transactions that raised suspicion of — and have been in truth a part of — a felony enterprise whose foreign money was for the sexual servitude of dozens of ladies and women in and past the Virgin Islands. »
« Human trafficking was the [principal] enterprise of the accounts Epstein maintained at JP Morgan, » the swimsuit says.
Throughout a March 16 court docket listening to, a lawyer for the Virgin Islands informed Rakoff that each Dimon and Staley had been conscious of Epstein’s intercourse trafficking whereas he was a buyer.
« Jamie Dimon knew in 2008 that his billionaire consumer was a intercourse trafficker, » the legal professional Mimi Liu mentioned on the time. « If Staley is a rogue worker, why is not Jamie Dimon? »
« Staley knew, Dimon knew, JPMorgan Chase knew, » Liu mentioned.
A court docket submitting launched Wednesday cites a deposition by Mary Callahan Erdoes, who turned head of the financial institution’s asset and wealth administration division in 2000.
Erdoes « admitted in her deposition that JPMorgan was conscious by 2006 that Epstein was accused of paying money to have underage women and younger girls delivered to his residence, » based on the submitting by attorneys for the Virgin Islands.
Erdoes testified that the financial institution solely dropped Epstein as a consumer seven years later, after she realized that the tens of hundreds of {dollars} he was routinely withdrawing from his account have been for « precise money. »
— Extra reporting by CNBC’s Eamon Javers
