[1/2] A view of the outside of the JP Morgan Chase & Co. company headquarters in New York Metropolis Could 20, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Segar
NEW YORK, Could 31 (Reuters) – A former JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) govt wrote in a 2011 e-mail that the late financier and intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein shouldn’t be a shopper of the financial institution, in keeping with a transcript of a deposition of Chief Government Jamie Dimon seen by Reuters.
Dimon stated within the deposition he was not conscious of the e-mail on the time however “I do know it in the present day.”
Dimon additionally stated that if the financial institution had identified prior to now what is thought in the present day about Epstein – citing, specifically, his arrest in 2019 and the 2020 conviction of his longtime affiliate Ghislaine Maxwell on prices together with intercourse trafficking – that he would have been terminated as a shopper.
The most important U.S. financial institution faces lawsuits in search of damages by girls who declare that Epstein sexually abused them, and by the U.S. Virgin Islands, the place the late financier had a house.
Epstein was a JPMorgan shopper from 2000 to 2013, remaining so after pleading responsible in 2008 to a Florida state prostitution cost.
In Dimon’s Could 26 deposition, he was requested in regards to the e-mail former common counsel Stephen Cutler despatched to different executives, together with former non-public banking chief Jes Staley and Mary Erdoes, now head of asset and wealth administration, calling Epstein “not an individual we should always do enterprise with, interval.”
“This isn’t an honorable individual in any manner,” Cutler wrote. “He shouldn’t be a shopper.”
The e-mail was learn by a lawyer for the Virgin Islands throughout questioning, in keeping with the transcript. Reuters has not seen the e-mail itself.
“Had the agency believed he was engaged in an ongoing intercourse trafficking operation, Epstein wouldn’t have been retained as a shopper,” a JPMorgan spokesperson stated in an announcement. “In hindsight, we remorse he was ever a shopper.”
Cutler didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
David Boies, a lawyer for the girl generally known as Jane Doe who’s suing the financial institution, stated in an announcement that the deposition “confirms that folks on the hugest stage inside JP Morgan, together with its common counsel, acknowledged that the financial institution was complicit in offering banking providers to Epstein, however nonetheless continued to take action.”
Within the deposition, Dimon additionally repeatedly denied talking about Epstein with Staley, who was pleasant with Epstein. The financial institution is suing Staley, arguing he ought to be held answerable for any damages JPMorgan is compelled to pay for concealing what he knew about Epstein.
Staley has stated he regrets his friendship with Epstein, however denied figuring out about Epstein’s alleged intercourse trafficking. His legal professionals didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon Wednesday.
The New York Instances reported on Wednesday that Erdoes stated throughout a March deposition that she determined to dismiss Epstein as a shopper in 2013 due to issues about massive withdrawals from his accounts.
In the course of the deposition, Dimon stated he trusted each Erdoes and Cutler and thought they had been “making an attempt to do the precise factor,” in keeping with the transcript.
Epstein died in 2019 in a Manhattan jail cell whereas awaiting trial on intercourse trafficking prices. New York Metropolis’s medical expert referred to as the loss of life a suicide.
Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru and Luc Cohen in New York; Enhancing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Rosalba O’Brien
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