JPMorgan Chase facilitated over $1.1 million in payments from Jeffrey Epstein to "girls or women," despite having fired the convicted sex offender as a client, an attorney representing the US Virgin Islands told a judge on Monday.
Many of the girls had Eastern European surnames, according to a filing by attorney Linda Singer to Manhattan federal judge Jed Rakoff.
Over $320,000 of the payments were made to "numerous individuals for whom JPMorgan had no previously identified payments," Singer wrote, accusing the bank of failing to disclose the payments until after the end of discovery - the period in which parties in a lawsuit exchange evidence.
Singer has since asked Rakoff to impose monetary damages on the bank for failing to provide the information during discovery, and order the bank to turn over "all financial records for any newly disclosed girls or women to whom Epstein made payments," CNBC reports.
The Virgin Islands in its suit alleges that JPMorgan facilitated and financially benefited from sex trafficking by Epstein of young women during the years when he was a client.
Epstein maintained a residence on a private island in the American territory where he sexually abused scores of women, and during that time kept tens of millions of dollars on deposit at JPMorgan.
JPMorgan says it cut ties to Epstein in 2013. But Monday’s court filing challenges the bank’s timeline. -CNBC
According to a spokeswoman for the bank, Patricia Wexler, "There is no proof this is accurate."
The USVI claims that documents recently turned over by JPMorgan contains new, previously unseen information that had been sought by the DA. It was assembled internally by the bank in October 2019, over three months after Epstein was arrested on federal child sex trafficking charges.
"There is no legitimate reason for JPMorgan failing to identify payments to girls or women the bank itself identified as being related to Epstein — and potential evidence of Epstein’s sex trafficking venture — years before receiving the USVI’s discovery requests," reads the filing, adding that a spreadsheet prepared by JPMorgan listing the dates and beneficiaries of more than 9,000 transactions payable to Epstein-related individuals between 2005 and 2019, "had a combined value of over $2.4 billion."
"Many of the entries reflected accounts and payments, numbering in the thousands and totaling in the hundreds of millions of dollars in value, of which USVI had no prior knowledge or information from JPMorgan’s responses and productions during the fact discovery period," wrote Singer.
JPMorgan has argued that the information wasn't provided earlier "because it was not in a custodial production and/or did not relate to individuals specifically identified by the USVI as related to Epstein."
Singer, however, says that "The USVI has repeatedly made clear that its discovery requests are not limited to individuals it specifically identified as being related to Epstein."
"The USVI specifically identified the individuals it knew were related to Epstein to make its discovery requests clearer — not relieve JPMorgan of its duty to produce known relevant documents," reads the filing.
What's more, Singer says JPMorgan may not have disclosed everything, and has asked Judge Rakoff to force the bank to produce all documents and information concerning its 2019 review of Epstein matters, including "all financial records for any newly disclosed girls or women to whom Epstein made payments."
