A Latest York federal judge warned JPMorgan Chase that he might find the bank in contempt of court if it doesn’t speed up in producing evidence related to late sexual offender and money manager Jeffrey Epstein for lawsuits by an Epstein accuser and the federal government of the U.S. Virgin Islands, CNBC has learned.
Judge Jed Rakoff suggested in a notice that JPMorgan and two law firms representing the bank have been slow-walking in turning over documents and other evidence to plaintiffs within the case, under a process often known as discovery, in line with a source accustomed to the notice.
The notice comes two weeks before JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon is scheduled to be questioned under oath by plaintiffs’ lawyers for the civil suits, which accuse his bank of enabling and benefiting from Epstein’s alleged sex trafficking of young women.
“The Court also wishes to notice that it is anxious that JPMorgan shouldn’t be moving more expeditiously to supply responsive documents,” Rakoff wrote within the notice, which has yet to look on the general public docket within the case in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
“While the Court appreciates the big volume of discovery that’s to be accomplished on this case, an organization as large as JPMorgan and counsel as experienced as WilmerHale and Massey & Gail should find a way to maneuver with greater speed than what was revealed by this incident,” the judge wrote, referring to the bank’s two law firms.
“So JPMorgan is placed on notice that further expedition shall be needed on pain of being put in contempt of Court,” Rakoff wrote.
A JPMorgan spokesperson had no comment on the notice.
Jeffrey Epstein attends Launch of RADAR MAGAZINE at Hotel QT on May 18, 2005.
Patrick McMullan | Getty Images
Epstein, who died from a jailhouse suicide in 2019 shortly after being arrested on federal child sex trafficking charges, was a long-time customer of the bank until 2013.
The lawsuits allege the bank allowed Epstein to stay a client despite evidence he was using hundreds of thousands of dollars he kept on deposit to facilitate his trafficking of women and young women to his private island within the Virgin Islands and elsewhere.
Five years before JPMorgan ended its customer relationship with Epstein, he pleaded guilty in Florida state court to soliciting sex for money from an underage girl and served 13 months in jail.
Before his conviction, Epstein was friends with former presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, in addition to Prince Andrew of Britain.
JPMorgan denies any wrongdoing, and in its own civil grievance the corporate has said former bank executive Jes Staley could be legally answerable for any liability arising from its relationship with Epstein.
Staley spent three a long time at JPMorgan and had close contact with Epstein — whom he considered a friend — through the years when Epstein was a customer.
Rakoff, in a court ruling published in early May, noted that “plaintiffs allege that Mr. Staley had first-hand knowledge of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation.”
“Mr. Staley is alleged to have visited Epstein’s residences several times while that operation was ongoing, and, during these visits, observed [the Epstein accuser suing JPMorgan] ‘as a sexual trafficking and abuse victim,'” Rakoff noted.
“Plaintiffs further allege that Mr. Staley himself abused a few of Epstein’s victims, including” the girl suing the bank, the judge wrote. That woman claims that “‘considered one of Epstein’s friends’ — whom she later identified as Mr. Staley — ‘used aggressive force in his sexual assault of her and informed [her] that he had Epstein’s permission to do what he desired to her.'”
In his own court filing, Staley called the accusations against him “baseless,” and he has denied knowledge of Epstein’s sex trafficking.
Staley stepped down as CEO of British banking giant Barclays in late 2021 after an inquiry by a United Kingdom regulator into how he had characterised his relationship with Epstein to Barclays.
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