Plaintiffs in two lawsuits accusing JPMorgan Chase & Co. of facilitating Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking are asking for court orders requiring Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon to turn over additional documents.
(Bloomberg) — Plaintiffs in two lawsuits accusing JPMorgan Chase & Co. of facilitating Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking are asking for court orders requiring Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon to turn over additional documents.
In separate filings Thursday in Manhattan federal court, the US Virgin Islands and an Epstein victim said JPMorgan was refusing to turn over Dimon documents from certain time periods. Both suits claim the CEO was involved in the bank’s decision to keep Epstein after his sex abuse came to light.
A JPMorgan spokeswoman declined to comment on the filings.
The USVI said the bank was objecting to turning over documents from after 2014. The territory wants Dimon’s documents until August 2019. Though not referenced in the filing, Epstein was found dead in his jail cell that month while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.
Epstein was a client of the bank between 1998 and 2013, but the USVI said some of JPMorgan’s allegedly unlawful conduct continued past the end of its relationship with Epstein. The part of USVI’s Thursday filing describing the alleged post-2013 conduct was redacted.
The victim, who has filed a proposed class action as Jane Doe 1, said JPMorgan had refused to turn over Dimon documents from before 2006. According to her filing, the bank argues that doing so would be unduly burdensome. JPMorgan is allegedly taking the same stance with former general counsel Stephen Cutler and another person named Vanessa Budhu.
“JPMC cannot seriously contend that only documents after 2006 are relevant to Doe’s claims when the genesis of its relationship with Epstein began at least eight years prior,” lawyers for Doe said in their Thursday filing. “Indeed, as the complaint makes clear, between (at least) 2000 and 2005, Epstein provided clients to JP Morgan and, in exchange, JP Morgan allowed Epstein to do as he pleased with his JP Morgan accounts.”
The cases are both before US District Judge Jed Rakoff, and JPMorgan has asked him to dismiss both of them on the grounds that there is no evidence that the bank knew Epstein was involved in sex-trafficking.
Both suits focus on the relationship between Epstein and former JPMorgan private banking head Jes Staley, alleging the latter was aware of his client’s illegal activities. The bank has contended that allegations that Staley “personally observed” sexual abuse or exchanged emails with Epstein don’t show that he had knowledge of crimes that can be imputed to JPMorgan.
Epstein victims who sued JPMorgan claim the bank chose to profit from Epstein’s sex-trafficking venture rather than follow the law, collecting millions of dollars from handling his accounts.
Read more: Epstein Victims Say Banks Chose Profits Over Following Law
The cases are USVI v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, 22-cv-10904-UA, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan) and Jane Doe 1 v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, 22-cv-10019, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan)
(Updates with victims’ claim in final paragraph. An earlier version of the story corrected name of bank.)
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