Albert Bryan Jr., guv of the U.S. Virgin Islands, speaks throughout the SelectUSA Investment Summit in National Harbor, Maryland, on May 2, 2023.
Ting Shen|Bloomberg|Getty Images
JPMorgan Chase in a court filing Tuesday called the U.S. Virgin Islands “complicit in the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein,” stating the sex predator provided high-ranking authorities there cash, guidance and prefers in exchange for looking the other method when he trafficked girls to be abused on his island vacation.
“For two decades, and for long after JPMC exited Epstein as a client, the entity that most directly failed to protect public safety and most actively facilitated and benefited from Epstein’s continued criminal activity was the plaintiff in this case — the USVI government itself,” the bank stated in the Manhattan federal court filing.
“Rather than stop him, they helped him,” JPMorgan stated, pointing out countless dollars in tax rewards and other advantages the area provided Epstein.
That claim comes as JPMorgan protects itself versus a civil claim by the Virgin Islands, which declares that the bank purposefully allowed Epstein’s sex trafficking and gained from it when he was a consumer from 1998 through 2013.
A spokesperson for theVirgin Islands’ chief law officer’s workplace informed CNBC on Tuesday, “JPMorgan Chase facilitated Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse, and should be held accountable for violating the law.”
“This is an obvious attempt to shift blame away from JPMorgan Chase, which had a legal responsibility to report the evidence in its possession of Epstein’s human trafficking, and failed to do so,” the representative stated.
The bank’s filing Tuesday asked Judge Jed Rakoff to reject a movement by the Virgin Islands that would prevent JPMorgan from raising particular so-called affirmative defenses to the claim.
“USVI’s motion seeks to strike only those specific defenses that threaten to expose its relationship with Epstein,” the filing stated.
In a footnote, the filing stated the Virgin Islands had 3 guvs over the past 16 years: John de Jongh, Kenneth Mapp and present guv Albert Bryan Jr.
“As detailed herein, Epstein had close ties to each of them,” that footnote stated.
Earlier Tuesday, another court declare the very first time exposed that Bryan is arranged to be deposed June 6 for the claim. A source knowledgeable about the circumstance informed CNBC that JPMorgan asked for the deposition of Bryan, who has actually been guv considering that 2019.
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon is arranged to be deposed in the match Friday in New York.
Rakoff recently licensed the Virgin Islands to serve a subpoena for Tesla CEO Elon Musk on his electrical automobile business, looking for files that Musk might have revealing any interactions including him, Epstein and JPMorgan
That subpoena is based upon suspicion by the area that Epstein might have referred Musk or attempted to refer him to the bank as a customer.
Epstein, a previous good friend of Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, preserved a house on a personal island in the area where he sexually abused lots of girls throughout the years. He utilized cash from his JPMorgan accounts to pay ladies and fly them there.
In its filing Tuesday, JPMorgan kept in mind that when Epstein was launched from a Florida prison after pleading guilty to obtaining a small for sex, he attempted to schedule his parole to be moved from that state to the Virgin Islands, where he signed up as a sex culprit. He likewise preserved his main home in the area, which “put him under USVI law enforcement’s direct jurisdiction and supervision,” the filing stated.
The bank declares there was a “decades-long quid pro quo between Epstein and the USVI government” that took 3 kinds.
“First, high-ranking USVI officials spent years courting and gladly accepting Epstein’s influence in the form of gifts, favors, and political donations,” the filing stated.
“Second, in exchange, USVI approved Epstein favoritism in the kind of more than $ [amount redacted] million in tax rewards, to name a few advantages. Third, and most troublingly, USVI safeguarded Epstein, cultivating the ideal conditions for Epstein’s criminal conduct to continue unnoticed.”
Specifically, the filing states Epstein supported the candidateship of Stacey Plaskett, the Virgin Islands delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives, after she worked for the USVI Economic Development Authority, which granted Epstein “massive tax benefits.” Plaskett had actually likewise operated at a law practice that represented him in service affairs, the filing states.
Epstein and his staff members contributed more than $30,000 to Plaskett’s congressional races, according to the bank.
The filing stated that Epstein’s “primary conduit for spreading money and influence through” Virgin Islands federal government was then-first girl Cecile de Jongh, the other half of previousGov de Jongh, who served from 2007 through 2015.
And “despite her public role and official duties, First Lady de Jongh managed Epstein’s USVI-based companies … receiving from Epstein a salary, bonuses and other benefits,” the filing stated.
Jeffrey Epstein’s previous house on the island of LittleSt James in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Emily Michot|Miami Herald|Getty Images
Much of the information of the claims associated with Cecile de Jongh are edited in the filing, however in one area the bank states that in addition to working for his business she “extensively lobbied on his behalf with government officials, including the governor.”
In another greatly redacted area, the filing states the Virgin Islands “aided Epstein’s criminal activity.” The particular accusations regarding how the federal government did that is blacked out.
Almost entirely redacted is an area of the filing entitled, “Epstein exerted influence over USVI sex offender legislation and received lax monitoring.” In one unredacted area, the bank’s legal representatives composed, “While the USVI did conduct site visits of Epstein’s residences, those inspections were cursory at best.”
“Despite the direct infusions of profitable tax rewards, [redacted] and lax enforcement, Epstein still might not easily transportation and make use of girls without support from USVI federal government authorities,” the filing stated.
“In exchange for Epstein’s cash and gifts, USVI made life easy for him,” the filing stated. “The government mitigated any burdens from his sex offender status. And it made sure that no one asked too many questions about his transport and keeping of young girls on his island.”
The claim versus JPMorgan was submitted in late December already-Virgin Islands Attorney General Denise George, who a month previously had actually acquired a $105 million settlement from Epstein’s estate. Days after she submitted that match, Bryan fired George, who had actually been chief law officer for 4 years.
The guv fired George supposedly since she stopped working to signal him that she prepared to take legal action against JPMorgan, which is the biggest bank in the United States.
Despite George’s shooting, the Virgin Islands has actually continued to strongly pursue its lawsuits versus the bank.
On Tuesday, there was another in a series of personal telephone conferences with Rakoff over the case.
A public docket entry summed up the result of that conference, that included legal representatives for the Virgin Islands, JPMorgan, previous JPMorgan executive Jes Staley and an Epstein accuser who has a different, comparable claim pending versus the bank. JPMorgan is attempting to move any legal liability it might have in the match to Staley, who was a point of contact for Epstein at the bank.
“The deposition of Albert Bryan, Jr. is ordered to proceed on June 6,” that docket entry states.
The entry likewise states that “all parties other than JP Morgan are ordered to contact former officers and directors of JP Morgan only through counsel.”
CNBC asked for remark from legal representatives for the Virgin Islands and from JPMorgan about the conference Tuesday.
Charges versus Jeffrey Epstein were revealed on July 8, 2019 in New YorkCity Epstein will be charged with one count of sex trafficking of minors and one count of conspiracy to take part in sex trafficking of minors.
Stephanie Keith|Getty Images News|Getty Images
Epstein, 66, passed away by suicide in a Manhattan prison in August 2019, a month after he was detained and charged in Manhattan federal court with kid sex trafficking.
Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to a Florida state charge of obtaining sex from a minor woman and was sentenced to 13 months in prison.
His prior criminal case and stint in prison, which were understood to JPMorgan at the time, was available in the middle of his period as a consumer of the bank, where he preserved accounts from 1998 up until the bank severed its relationship with him in 2013.
Epstein ended up being a consumer of Deutsche Bank after that.
Deutsche Bank recently consented to settle a Manhattan federal court claim submitted by another Epstein accuser who declared that bank allowed and gained from his sex trafficking. Deutsche Bank will pay Epstein victims $75 million because offer.
Deutsche Bank in 2020 consented to pay a $150 million fine to New York’s monetary regulator for its negotiations with Epstein and other problems.
“We acknowledge our error onboarding Epstein in 2013, and the weaknesses in our processes, and have learnt from our mistakes and our shortcomings,” bank representative Dylan Riddle stated recently.
— CNBC’s Eamon Javers added to this report.
Correction: Some previous headings for this story were upgraded to show the appropriate spelling of Jeffrey Epstein’s name.
