JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon will be deposed over his bank’s connection with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and the decision to keep the late sex offender as a client, the Financial Times, Bloomberg and Reuters reported Tuesday.
Brad Edwards, an attorney representing alleged Epstein victim Jane Doe, who is suing the bank, told Reuters the under-oath interview is expected in early May.
Dimon was originally scheduled to be deposed in April, but lawyers for JPMorgan argued his interview should take place after that of Jes Staley, a person familiar with the matter told the Financial Times.
Staley, the former Barclays CEO who served as JPMorgan’s private-banking chief throughout much of Epstein’s time as a client, is set to be deposed in April.
U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff, who is presiding over Epstein-related cases against JPMorgan brought by Doe and the U.S. Virgin Islands, ordered that depositions related to the cases must be completed by the end of May.
JPMorgan declined to comment to the Financial Times, Bloomberg and Reuters.
The bank’s lawyers this month asserted Dimon was “not relevant” to the case, characterizing the USVI’s request to interview him as a “fishing expedition” meant to draw media attention to “specious and unnecessary arguments.”
Another executive at the bank — Mary Erdoes, JPMorgan’s asset- and wealth-management chief — was deposed this month.
The pretrial process unveiled communications between JPMorgan employees that reference a “pending Dimon review” of the bank’s relationship with Epstein.
Trish Wexler, a JPMorgan spokesperson, has said the bank has “not seen any evidence of such a review,” according to Bloomberg.
Rakoff this month dismissed six claims against JPMorgan and eight against Deutsche Bank in cases alleging the banks knowingly benefited from sex-trafficking operations tied to Epstein. Each bank, though, still must face four claims.
The judge has also ordered JPMorgan to give the USVI documents concerning Dimon from 2015 to 2019 — a time frame after the bank and Epstein parted ways in 2013. Lawyers for the bank had argued that would nearly double the trove of paperwork it would need to hand over.
A provisional trial date for both the Doe and USVI cases is set for October.
