Documents from JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon sought in Jeffrey Epstein lawsuit

The US Virgin Islands is demanding more documents from JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon in a lawsuit over the bank’s alleged decision to retain the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his associates as customers despite numerous red flags.

In a filing to a New York court on Thursday, the territory in which Epstein had a home asked a judge to compel JPMorgan “to provide discovery responses covering the full temporal scope of the [US Virgin Islands’] claims through 2019 and documents for custodian James Dimon”.

The territory, which first filed suit against JPMorgan in December, has accused the bank of “knowingly, recklessly, and unlawfully” providing the funds through which Epstein’s recruiters and victims were paid, and of enabling his sex trafficking schemes until at least August 2019.

“Dimon was personally involved both in decisions to retain Epstein’s accounts in the face of acknowledged high-risk activity . . . and in meetings and review related to Epstein’s referrals of prominent and high-wealth potential clients,” the filing reads.

It added that despite the chief executive’s “connections to this highly relevant subject matter, JPMorgan agrees to provide documents for him only through the year 2014”. The bank eventually dropped Epstein as a client in 2013, but lawyers for the US Virgin Islands argued that date should not mark “the outer temporal boundary of discovery”.

Central to the US Virgin Islands’ argument is a consent order that was issued in early 2013 against JPMorgan by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a banking regulator, which identified compliance deficiencies at the bank.

The US Virgin Islands argues it “is entitled to discover what JPMorgan did and learned regarding Epstein and the applicable compliance program between 2013 and 2019”.

It adds that the territory “also is entitled to learn what if anything became clear to JPMorgan in 2019 regarding Epstein’s conduct that would not have been obvious to it throughout the prior decade since the last time he was indicted for (and pleaded guilty to) child sex-trafficking conduct and since JPMorgan — internally — described Epstein’s purchase of a 14-year-old sex slave, and his provision of a line of credit to a modelling agency that was engaged in luring minor children for sexual play for money”.

Last week, a partially unredacted complaint filed by the US Virgin Islands also alleged that Dimon was privy to a review of Epstein’s account following his arrest in Florida on soliciting prostitution charges in 2006.

An internal email cited in the complaint reads: “I would count Epstein’s assets as a probable outflow for ’08 ($120mn or so?) as I can’t imagine it will stay (pending Dimon review).”

Earlier on Thursday, JPMorgan said: “We have found no evidence of, nor does [Dimon] recall, such a review.” The bank did not immediately respond to a request for further comment on the new US Virgin Islands demand. It has previously characterised the lawsuit as “meritless”.

In an interview on CNBC on Tuesday, Dimon was asked about the Epstein case but said he could not discuss specific litigation.