Senior JP Morgan bankers laughed and joked about Jeffrey Epstein’s pursuit of young girls when the paedophile financier was a client of the bank, a court filing has revealed.
According to The Telegraph:
The US Virgin Islands (USVI), which is bringing a lawsuit against the Wall Street giant in New York, has alleged that Mr Epstein’s behaviour “was so widely known at JPMorgan that senior executives joked about Epstein’s interest in young girls”.
In an amended filing, USVI, which has accused JP Morgan of benefitting from Mr Epstein’s sex trafficking while he was a client of the bank until 2013, made the allegation by citing a 2008 email to Mary Erdoes, who runs the bank’s asset and wealth management arm.
The content of the email was redacted and JP Morgan last month said that Ms Erdoes “always acted with the highest levels of integrity and professionalism” and had “informed this client 10 years ago that his relationship with our firm was being terminated”.
The territory also pointed to internal emails at JP Morgan about Epstein being under investigation or sued for sexual abuse and communication from a senior compliance official in 2010.
Lawyers for the territory allege that young women and a recruiter for Epstein’s trafficking ring were paid from his JP Morgan account, while Epstein also made cash withdrawals to fund the criminal venture.
The lawyers said: “JPMorgan knowingly did not follow these requirements because it knew that doing so would have prevented Epstein’s secret cash transactions that were necessary to his sex-trafficking operation from escaping knowledge of federal investigative and prosecuting agencies.”
The filing marks the latest allegation against JP Morgan over its links to Epstein, with USVI claiming that the bank is liable for facilitating sex trafficking by ignoring red flags and providing banking services to the late convicted paedophile.
The bank is also facing another suit from Epstein’s victims.
Many of the allegations centre around the relationship Epstein had with Jes Staley, the former head of JP Morgan’s private bank who went on to lead Barclays.
Unsealed emails allege that Mr Staley drank white wine in a hot tub on Epstein’s private Caribbean island while the paedophile financier was under house arrest for child sex offences.
The emails also claimed the two men discussed “Disney princesses” who Epstein was trying to pursue, while he also shared photos of young women in “seductive poses”.
Mr Staley is not a defendant in either lawsuit. He has repeatedly denied knowledge of Epstein’s sexual abuse.
