NEW YORK — The government of the U.S. Virgin Islands unveiled fresh allegations against JP Morgan Chase this week over its ties to the disgraced late financier Jeffrey Epstein. It’s part of a massive lawsuit that accuses the bank of helping conceal his sex crimes and seeks at least $190 million. A lengthy series of new court filings detail the bank’s alleged dealings with Epstein while he was a client between 1998 and 2013.
The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court last December, alleges JP Morgan benefitted from Epstein’s illegal sex trafficking enterprise and suggests the banking giant “turned a blind eye” to the exploitation of women and girls over many years at his property on Little St. James island. It levies a range of accusations against JP Morgan, including that the bank continued to provide services to Epstein after he became a registered sex offender in the U.S. Virgin Islands, following a 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor for prostitution, and failed to comply with federal records and reporting regulations in a deliberate effort to protect Epstein, and his illegal activities, from scrutiny.
In redacted court documents filed Monday night, the U.S. Virgin Islands request a partial summary judgement — asking the judge to rule on some allegations brought in the suit against JP Morgan Chase — ahead of an upcoming trial date scheduled for October. The allegations mentioned in that request involve JP Morgan’s alleged “participation in Epstein’s sex-trafficking venture” and “obstruction of enforcement of the law in violation of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act,” which prohibits “sex trafficking of children or of others by force, fraud, or coercion.”
Portions of court transcripts and emails included in the filings say Jes Staley, the former CEO at Barclays and previously an executive at JP Morgan, learned that Epstein was “engaging in sex for money with young women” directly from Epstein during an in-person conversation at Epstein’s home in July 2006, after his arrest for felony sex crimes. According to the filings, which reference a court document filed under seal, Epstein admitted to Staley “that he had engaged in sex with multiple young women for money, only denying the girls’ ‘ages.'”
Staley allegedly recounted that conversation during subsequent interactions with Mary Erdoes, who is now the CEO of asset and wealth management at JP Morgan, and Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan, according to the filings. Court filings allege Staley wrote to Erdoes the day after his talk with Epstein in 2006, saying, “I went and saw him last night. I’ve never seen him so shaken. He also adamantly denies the ages.”
In a deposition in June, Dimon denied knowing anything about Epstein until after Epstein’s 2019 arrest.
“I don’t recall knowing anything about Jeffrey Epstein until the stories broke sometime in 2019. And I was surprised that I didn’t even — had never even heard of the guy, pretty much, and how involved he was with so many people,” Dimon said, according to a transcript of the videotaped deposition. Asked what information he had “about what JP Morgan knew or didn’t know about Jeffrey Epstein and JP Morgan’s handling of his accounts,” Dimon responded: “I knew very little about any of this until this case was opened. And then of course I’ve learned quite a bit since then.”
Staley faces a lawsuit from JP Morgan that aims to hold him liable, to either the U.S. Virgin islands or to JP Morgan, “for all sums awarded to the USVI and against JPMC, if any, at trial,” should the U.S. Virgin Islands prove its allegations in court. The lawsuit stems from accusations by one Epstein accuser, identified as Jane Doe, who said, “Staley knew without any doubt that Epstein was trafficking and abusing girls,” according to the bank’s complaint.
Staley formally denied his involvement in a court filing last month, responding to the complaint from JP Morgan, saying he “did not have knowledge, constructive or otherwise, that means of force, threats of force, fraud, coercion, or any combination of such means would be used to cause any person to engage in a sex act,” including anyone younger than 18.
In another email exchange included in the new filings this week, a former JP Morgan executive, who was at the time the bank’s chief financial officer of asset and wealth management, wrote to Erdoes in 2012, referencing the home of someone whose name was redacted, saying it “Reminded me of JE’s house, except it was more tasteful, and fewer nymphettes. More like the Frick. Art was fabulous. D.” Erdoes responded, “Wow,” according to the filings.
Patricia Wexler, a spokesperson for JP Morgan, noted in an email to CBS News that executives at the bank, including Erdoes, let Epstein go as a client years before a federal prosecutor charged him with sex trafficking in 2019.
“Mary Erdoes and others exited him as a client six years before he was charged with human trafficking,” Wexler said in response to the allegations involving Erdoes. “Mary has always held herself and her colleagues to the highest standards of integrity and trust, leading the Asset & Wealth Management business by example. Her competence and character are top-notch, and she is consistently recognized as one of the top executives in financial services.”
Court documents also highlight “the sheer amount of cash being dispersed” while Epstein was a client at JP Morgan, including large cash withdrawals periodically taken from his personal account, and “more than $3 million” in payments from Epstein to various women over a decade, as well as the fact that JP Morgan maintained banking accounts for his alleged victims.
In one instance, the documents say JP Morgan opened an account for one of Epstein’s alleged victims without verifying basic personal information like “birthdate, passport number, driver’s license number, or ‘confirmed’ social security number.” The person for whom the account was opened is described in the filings as “a Slovakian citizen who has come to the US for modelling work,” and whom Epstein knew “personally.” Communication between staff at the bank characterized the account authorization as a “favor” for Epstein, saying he “often provides support to emerging models,” the documents allege.
Wexler characterized a portion of that anecdote as “incomplete and misleading,” saying, “We did, in fact, gather this woman’s information, including date of birth, social security number and passport number, through her account application form and signature card.” The due diligence report that JP Morgan allegedly approved in order to open the woman’s account, which the U.S. Virgin Islands says did not include that information, is sealed.
Quoting a former FBI special agent, Shaun O’Neill, the U.S. Virgin Islands alleges that Epstein “would not have been able to continue his criminal activity from 2008 onward” had the government been made aware of his suspicious financial transactions.
JP Morgan Chase countered with allegations that the U.S. Virgin Islands “knowingly used its sovereign powers to enable Epstein’s sex crimes.” The bank accused the territory in its own court filings on Monday night of waiving sex offender monitoring requirements for Epstein, “facilitating” visas that allowed him to bring victims to the U.S. Virgin Islands “and actively looking the other way whenever he arrived at USVI airports accompanied by young women and girls.”
“Rather than account for its own failures to investigate and monitor this criminal under its jurisdiction . . .USVI blames a third-party bank that did not have USVI’s authority to enforce any law, nor USVI’s knowledge of Epstein’s crimes in USVI’s territory,” the bank said.
CBS News contacted attorneys representing the U.S. Virgin Islands, Staley’s legal team, and an attorney defending JP Morgan Chase who represented Dimon during his deposition, for comment on the latest court filings, but did not receive immediate replies. This story will be updated with any response.
JP Morgan agreed to a $290 million settlement last month in a separate lawsuit brought by Epstein’s accusers. In a statement emailed to CBS MoneyWatch at the time, JPMorgan called Epstein’s behavior “monstrous.”
“Any association with him was a mistake and we regret it,” the bank said. “We would never have continued to do business with him if we believed he was using our bank in any way to help commit heinous crimes.”
Epstein died by suicide in 2019 in his jail cell at New York’s Metropolitan Correctional Center. He was being held without bail at the time while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges.
By EMILY MAE CZACHOR/CBS News