JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon regrets Jeffrey Epstein relationship
WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 22: JPMorgan Chase & Co CEO Jamie Dimon testifies during a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing on Capitol Hill September 22, 2022 in Washington, DC. The committee held the hearing for annual oversight of the nation's largest banks. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon in an interview Thursday said he was "so sad" the bank had any business relationship with Jeffrey Epstein — but denied the firm is legally liable for the dead predator's sex trafficking.
Dimon also said, in the televised interview with Bloomberg, that if JPMorgan had known everything that has become public in recent years about its former customer Epstein "we would have done things differently."
Dimon is scheduled to give a deposition beginning May 26 for civil lawsuits filed in Manhattan federal court by the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands and an Epstein sex abuse accuser. The suits accuse JPMorgan of enabling and benefiting from Epstein's sex trafficking, which included sending young women to the Virgin Islands to be abused by him and others at his private island there.
Court filings this week show in detail that for years employees of JPMorgan shared with each other concerns about having Epstein as a client — well before the bank terminated its relationship with him.
"I am so sad that we had any relationship to that man whatsoever," Dimon told Bloomberg on Thursday.
"You know, we had top lawyers evaluating, from the [U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission] enforcement, the [Department of Justice], you know, and obviously, had we known then what we know today, we would have done things differently."
"But it's very unfortunate, and I have deep respect for these women," Dimon said.
"That doesn't mean we're liable for the action of an individual, but I do have deep respect for them, my heart goes out to them," he said.
Epstein, who was a client of the bank beginning in 1998 and kept millions of dollars on deposit, pleaded guilty in 2008 to a Florida state charge of soliciting sex from an underage girl. He was sentenced to 13 months in jail.
Despite that conviction, Epstein remained a customer of JPMorgan until 2013.
Source: CNBC
