[1/2] A perspective of the exterior of the JP Morgan Chase & Co. corporate headquarters in New York City May well 20, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Segar
NEW YORK, Might 31 (Reuters) – A previous JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) government wrote in a 2011 e-mail that the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein should really not be a client of the lender, in accordance to a transcript of a deposition of Chief Government Jamie Dimon found by Reuters.
Dimon explained in the deposition he was not conscious of the e-mail at the time but “I know it right now.”
Dimon also stated that if the lender experienced regarded in the previous what is identified today about Epstein – citing, in unique, his arrest in 2019 and the 2020 conviction of his longtime affiliate Ghislaine Maxwell on expenses like sex trafficking – that he would have been terminated as a consumer.
The largest U.S. bank faces lawsuits trying to find damages by women of all ages who declare that Epstein sexually abused them, and by the U.S. Virgin Islands, where the late financier had a residence.
Epstein was a JPMorgan shopper from 2000 to 2013, remaining so right after pleading responsible in 2008 to a Florida condition prostitution cost.
In Dimon’s May possibly 26 deposition, he was questioned about the electronic mail previous common counsel Stephen Cutler despatched to other executives, such as former private banking main Jes Staley and Mary Erdoes, now head of asset and prosperity administration, calling Epstein “not a human being we should really do business enterprise with, time period.”
“This is not an honorable particular person in any way,” Cutler wrote. “He should really not be a shopper.”
The email was read by a law firm for the Virgin Islands in the course of questioning, in accordance to the transcript. Reuters has not noticed the electronic mail by itself.
“Experienced the organization believed he was engaged in an ongoing sexual intercourse trafficking procedure, Epstein would not have been retained as a customer,” a JPMorgan spokesperson stated in a assertion. “In hindsight, we regret he was ever a consumer.”
Cutler did not quickly respond to a ask for for comment.
David Boies, a attorney for the woman regarded as Jane Doe who is suing the bank, reported in a statement that the deposition “confirms that individuals at the hugest amount in JP Morgan, which include its common counsel, recognized that the bank was complicit in furnishing banking solutions to Epstein, but even so ongoing to do so.”
In the deposition, Dimon also repeatedly denied speaking about Epstein with Staley, who was welcoming with Epstein. The lender is suing Staley, arguing he must be held liable for any damages JPMorgan is compelled to spend for concealing what he realized about Epstein.
Staley has said he regrets his friendship with Epstein, but denied figuring out about Epstein’s alleged sex trafficking. His legal professionals did not right away react to a request for comment on Wednesday.
The New York Occasions reported on Wednesday that Erdoes reported all through a March deposition that she made the decision to dismiss Epstein as a consumer in 2013 simply because of fears about massive withdrawals from his accounts.
Throughout the deposition, Dimon mentioned he trustworthy both of those Erdoes and Cutler and assumed they had been “seeking to do the proper factor,” in accordance to the transcript.
Epstein died in 2019 in a Manhattan jail mobile while awaiting demo on sex trafficking expenses. New York City’s clinical examiner identified as the demise 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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