JPMorgan Chase knew in 2006 that Jeffrey Epstein had been accused of paying cash to bring underage girls and young women into his home – seven years before the bank let him down as a customer, according to legal documents at New York on Wednesday.
Mary Erdoes, who is now the head of the U.S. bank’s asset management, testified in a recent deposition that JPMorgan knew about the charges in 2006, lawyers wrote in newly unredacted portions of a lawsuit filed against the bank by the US Virgin Islands. , where Epstein had a home.
“In 2010, JPMorgan’s compliance officers decided that Epstein ‘should leave,'” according to the documents. The bank eventually ended its relationship with Epstein in 2013.
USVI seeks damages from JPMorgan, saying it benefited from human trafficking by continuing to keep Epstein as a client even after he was arrested on state charges of procuring a minor for children prostitution in Florida in 2006. The disgraced financier died by suicide in 2019 while in jail awaiting trial on federal charges.
The filing comes days after longtime chief executive Jamie Dimon told CNN that JPMorgan has “some of the best lawyers in the world ‘working in compliance’ who look at all of these things and make decisions at the time. based on what they know”.
When asked if the bank should have kept Epstein as a client after his 2008 conviction, Dimon added that “hindsight is a fabulous gift”.
Dimon is expected to be questioned under oath next month about his knowledge of the decision to retain Epstein. He denied being involved in any review of Epstein’s account.
JPMorgan declined to comment. He previously described the lawsuit as baseless. A person familiar with the matter said the bank became aware of the charges after newspapers reported Epstein’s arrest.
This is a developing story.
