The US Virgin Islands is demanding more documents from JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon in a lawsuit over the bank’s alleged decision to retain late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his associates as customers despite numerous red flags.
In a filing to a New York court on Thursday, the region where Epstein has a home asked a judge to compel JPMorgan “to provide a discovery response covering the full temporal scope [US Virgin Islands’] claims through 2019 and documents for the custody of James Dimon”.
The region, which first filed a lawsuit against JPMorgan in December, accused the bank of “knowingly, recklessly and unlawfully” providing funds paid to Epstein’s recruits and victims, and allowing sex trafficking schemes until at least August 2019.
“Dimon was personally involved in the decision to retain Epstein’s account in the face of acknowledged high-risk activity . . . and in meetings and reviews related to Epstein’s referrals of high-profile and high-wealth potential clients,” the filing said.
He added that despite the chief executive’s “connection with this very relevant subject, JPMorgan agreed to provide documents to him only in 2014”. The bank eventually dropped Epstein as a client in 2013, but lawyers for the US Virgin Islands said that date should not mark the “outer temporal limit of discovery”.
Central to the US Virgin Islands’ argument is a consent order issued in early 2013 to JPMorgan by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the banking regulator, which identified a lack of compliance at the bank.
The US Virgin Islands said it “reserves the right to discover what JPMorgan did and learn about Epstein and its compliance program between 2013 and 2019”.
Adding that the region “also has the right to learn what if something becomes clear with JPMorgan in 2019 about Epstein’s actions that will not be known in the last decade since he was last accused (and pleaded guilty) of child sex trafficking and since JPMorgan – internal – described Epstein’s purchase of a 14-year-old sex slave, and the provision of a line of credit for a modeling agency involved in luring minors to sexual games for money”.
Last week, a partially unsettled complaint filed by the US Virgin Islands also claimed that Dimon had the right to inspect Epstein’s account after he was arrested in Florida for soliciting prostitution charges in 2006.
An internal email cited in the complaint read: “I’m going to count Epstein’s assets as a possible outflow for ’08 ($120 million or more?) because I can’t imagine they’ll last (waiting for Dimon’s review).”
Earlier on Thursday, JPMorgan said: “We found no evidence, nor did we [Dimon] recall, such a review.” The bank did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the new US Virgin Islands request. It previously described the lawsuit as “non-partisan”.
In an interview on CNBC on Tuesday, Dimon was asked about the Epstein case but said he could not discuss the special trial.