Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase & Co, will be interviewed under oath over the bank’s relationship with late sex offender and former client Jeffrey Epstein, a lawyer involved in the case said on Tuesday.
The deposition is expected in early May, according to Brad Edwards, a lawyer representing women who claim they were sexually abused by Epstein and are suing the largest U.S. bank for allegedly enabling the financier’s sex trafficking.
JPMorgan declined to comment.
Epstein had been a JPMorgan client from 2000 to 2013. He agreed to a plea deal in 2008 in Florida on charges of procuring a person under 18 for prostitution and felony solicitation of prostitution.
JPMorgan is defending two lawsuits seeking damages over its dealings with Epstein — a proposed class action by Epstein’s accusers and a case brought by the U.S. Virgin Islands, where Epstein owned a home.
JPMorgan sues its former exec
The bank is also suing Jes Staley, a former private banking chief who spent decades with the company and later served as Barclays Plc CEO. He had been friendly with Epstein, but expressed regret for the relationship and has denied any involvement in Epstein’s illegal activity.
Staley resigned from Barclays in November 2021 amid a regulatory inquiry into how he characterized his relationship with Epstein.
JPMorgan, which has accused Staley of “intentional and outrageous conduct” by concealing information about Epstein, seeks to force the return of eight years of compensation and reimbursement for damages the bank might incur in other lawsuits.
Previous lawsuits have shown Staley and Epstein exchanged hundreds of emails and text messages over the years, including some about young women, and they were seen to have a close relationship that went beyond the professional relationship a banker would have with a wealthy client.
On March 9, a federal judge ordered JPMorgan to give the U.S. Virgin Islands documents concerning Dimon from 2015 to 2019, after Epstein had been dropped as a client, rejecting the bank’s claim that the territory was on a “fishing expedition.”
Deutsche Bank AG, where Epstein was a client from 2013 to 2018, is also being sued by the financier’s accusers.
Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell at age 66 in August 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking.
Ghislaine Maxwell, 61, is serving a 20-year prison sentence after a Manhattan jury convicted her in December 2021 on five charges for recruiting and grooming four girls for abuse by Epstein between 1994 and 2004. She recently asked a U.S. appeals court to throw out her conviction, saying a slew of errors marred her trial and prosecutors made her a scapegoat because Epstein could no longer be prosecuted.
The Financial Times earlier reported Dimon’s expected deposition.
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