JPMorgan Processed More Than $1bn for Epstein, US Virgin Islands Says
A lawyer for the US Virgin Islands has said that JPMorgan Chase told United States authorities it processed more than $1bn for Jeffrey Epstein over 16 years.
JPMorgan reported the transactions as suspicious to the US Department of the Treasury following Epstein’s suicide in 2019, Mimi Liu, a lawyer for the territory, said at a hearing concerning its lawsuit against the largest US bank.
The Reuters news agency said it did not view the bank’s disclosures to the Treasury, which are not public.
A JPMorgan spokesperson declined a Reuters request for comment.
Epstein had been a JPMorgan client from 1998 to 2013, when the bank fired him. The disgraced financier had been awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges at the time of his death.
The US Virgin Islands, where Epstein owned two private islands, is suing JPMorgan for at least $190m and likely much more, saying it ignored red flags that Epstein was running a sex trafficking operation because he was a lucrative client.
JPMorgan has denied knowing that Epstein was running a sex trafficking operation, and has faulted the territory for having a cozy relationship with him.
Liu mentioned the $1bn amount, which had not been previously disclosed, in arguing that US District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan should find before the case goes to trial that the bank participated in Epstein’s sex trafficking.
She said no reasonable juror could find that JPMorgan was in the dark about its jet-setting client.
🔗Source: Al Jazeera
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