JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon deposed in Jeffrey Epstein suit
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon talks to reporters as he leaves the U.S. Capitol after an unannounced meeting with U.S. Senate Majority Leader Schumer that was reportedly about the possibility of the U.S. defaulting on its debt, outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, May 17, 2023.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon testified at a deposition in New York on Friday that he had no involvement in the accounts of longtime customer Jeffrey Epstein, the bank said.
Dimon was being deposed for lawsuits accusing JPMorgan of facilitating and profiting from Epstein's sex trafficking of young women, which he financed with money he had on deposit there.
"Our CEO reaffirmed after his deposition that, as he has previously said, that he never met with him, never emailed him, does not recall ever discussing his accounts internally, and was not involved in any decisions about his account," said a bank spokeswoman. "There are millions and millions of emails and other documents that have been produced in this case and not one comes close to even suggesting that he had any role in decisions about Epstein's accounts."
The spokeswoman added: "As we have said, we now know that Epstein's behavior was monstrous, and his victims deserve justice. In hindsight, any association with him was a mistake and we regret it, but these suits are misdirected as we did not help him commit his heinous crimes."
Dimon gave his deposition at JPMorgan's headquarters in Manhattan. The bank earlier lost an effort to dismiss the suits by the plaintiffs – the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands and an anonymous Epstein accuser.
The suits claim that JPMorgan, the biggest bank in the United States, kept Epstein as a customer even after learning he was being investigated for sexually abusing underage girls in Florida and after he pleaded guilty in a state charge there in 2008 to paying for sex from a minor.
The bank is accused in the complaints in U.S. District Court in Manhattan of doing so in order to keep Epstein, who kept tens of millions of dollars in accounts there, despite internal concerns about his slimy reputation.
The Virgin Islands says Epstein used frequent cash withdrawals he made from those accounts to pay for young women to travel to the American territory so that he and others could abuse them at his residence on a private island he owned.
"Human trafficking was the [principal] business of the accounts Epstein maintained at JPMorgan," the Virgin Islands' suit says.
Dimon's deposition was taken in private. The questions he was asked and the answers he gave would only become public if they are used in court filings and proceedings, or if they are leaked.
Also on Friday afternoon, Judge Jed Rakoff held a hearing on a request by lawyers for the accuser to certify her lawsuit as a class action complaint, which could add dozens of potential accusers as plaintiffs. JPMorgan opposes that request. Rakoff is expected to rule by late June on that issue.
Source: CNBC
