JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon testified last week that top bank executive Mary Erdoes and the firm’s then-head lawyer had the authority to boot sex predator Jeffrey Epstein as a customer well before Erdoes finally took that step in 2013.
Questions by lawyers to Dimon at his deposition Friday for two lawsuits against JPMorgan underscore that Erdoes and the lawyer, former JPMorgan general counsel Stephen Cutler, were aware of claims Epstein had preyed on young women while a client of the bank for years.
Erdoes in her own deposition, taken previously, admitted that she as early as 2006 was aware that Epstein was accused of paying cash to have underage girls and young women brought to his home, court filings reveal.
But Dimon on Friday repeatedly said he had no knowledge of such claims about Epstein, and that he was barely aware of him at all until 2019.
The lawsuits against the bank allege Epstein used money from his JPMorgan accounts for the sex trafficking of young women, and that the bank retained him as a customer to maintain his business despite serious warning flags about him.
One suit against the bank was filed by the government of the U.S Virgin Islands, where Epstein maintained a residence on a private island. The other suit was filed by an Epstein accuser who is seeking to certify the complaint as a class action for other victims.
JPM shares acquired 63 cents to $136.34.
