Elon Musk faces subpoena in Jeffrey Epstein lawsuit against JPMorgan
Electric car maker Tesla CEO Elon Musk meets with French Minister for the Economy and Finances Bruno Le Maire on the sidelines of the 6th edition of the "Choose France" Summit at the Chateau de Versailles, outside Paris on May 15, 2023.
The U.S. Virgin Islands issued a subpoena to Tesla CEO Elon Musk seeking documents for that government's lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase over sex trafficking by the bank's late longtime customer Jeffrey Epstein, a court filing revealed Monday.
That filing said the Virgin Islands has tried unsuccessfully to serve Musk with the subpoena, which was issued on April 28 because of suspicion that Epstein "may have referred or attempted to refer" Musk as a client to JPMorgan.
The USVI asked Manhattan federal court Judge Jed Rakoff in the filing to allow the government to serve Musk with the subpoena for the documents with Tesla's registered agent.
The American territory is suing JPMorgan for allegedly enabling and benefiting from Epstein's trafficking of young women to his private island in the Virgin Islands to be abused by him and others.
JPMorgan denies the government's claims, which are mirrored in a separate pending civil lawsuit in Manhattan federal court by a woman who says Epstein sexually abused her. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon is due to be deposed for both lawsuits beginning on May 26.
A May 4 court filing by the USVI revealed that the government had issued a similar subpoena for documents to Google co-founder Larry Page, and that the USVI likewise was having difficulty locating Page.
And the territory previously issued subpoenas to Page's fellow Google co-founder Sergey Brin, former Disney executive Michael Ovitz, Hyatt Hotels executive chairman Thomas Pritzker and Mort Zuckerman, the billionaire real estate investor.
In Monday's filing, the USVI said, "Upon information and belief, Elon Musk — the CEO of Tesla, Inc., among other companies — is a high-net-worth individual who Epstein may have referred or attempted to refer
to JPMorgan."
The government said that it had hired an investigative firm to try to locate an address from Musk, and also contacted one of his lawyers.
That lawyer in past federal cases has waived the requirement of him being personally served with legal documents, according to the filing.
"The Government contacted Mr. Musk's counsel via email to ask if he would be authorized to accept service on Mr. Musk's behalf in this matter but did not receive a response confirming or denying his authority," the filing said.
CNBC has reached out to request comment from Musk. In addition to being CEO of Tesla, Musk is head of SpaceX and owner of Twitter.
In 2018, Epstein told The New York Times writer James Stewart that he had been advising Musk after the Securities and Exchange Commission opened a probe into Musk's comments about taking the company private.
Source: CNBC
