While notorious paedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein has been dead since August of 2019, due to allegedly hanging himself in his prison cell in New York, the fallout of Epstein’s years of sexual abuse of underage girls continues.
One of Epstein’s most notorious homes was located on Little Saint James, an island belonging to the U.S. Virgin Islands, whose government is now locked in a battle with one of the United States’ largest banks, JP Morgan Chase, over its connections to Epstein and how much the bank knew of his actions involving minors, Reuters reports.
The U.S. Virgin Islands have accused JP Morgan Chase of working with Epstein and having him as a client while the abuses were ongoing, even though they fired him as a client in 2013, long after he had been found guilty of soliciting prostitution from a minor and becoming a registered sex offender in 2008.
The bank dismissed Epstein after one of the bank’s top private bankers, James “Jes” Staley, had left the company earlier that year. Staley had allegedly been the main advocate for Epstein at the bank.
“Mr. Staley was Mr. Epstein’s advocate in the bank and was the senior relationship manager for Mr. Epstein,” head of JPMorgan’s asset and wealth management division, Mary Erdoes, said earlier this year.
“And without someone there advocating for Mr. Epstein and the situation that I viewed, I was exiting Mr. Epstein,” she added, noting that Epstein had made several large, repeated withdrawals of cash from many accounts he had with the bank.
Staley, who previously served as CEO at Barclays Bank until the extent of his correspondence with Epstein was revealed in 2021, has denied knowing of Epstein’s sex trafficking activities. However, emails released earlier this month revealed that Staley had a “profound” friendship with Epstein and even told Epstein he missed him after Epstein’s 2008 imprisonment.
JP Morgan Chase has faced several class action lawsuits due to its relationship with Epstein, one of which, brought by around a hundred of Epstein’s victims, was settled last month for a sum of $290 million.
The U.S. Virgin Islands are also suing JP Morgan Chase for $190 million over its connection to Epstein and claim that the bank ignored “red flags” because Epstein had brought cash into the bank. They have called for a judge to declare that the bank both hindered law enforcement and participated in Epstein’s sex trafficking activity.
An exchange between bank executives was quoted by the U.S. Virgin Islands in which one senior executive told Mary Erdoes that a client’s house reminded him of Jeffrey Epstein’s home but with “fewer nymphettes.”
The bank has dismissed the claims from the islands and retorted by attacking the U.S. Virgin Islands’ own relationship with Epstein, claiming officials had arranged visas for his victims, accepted cash and other gifts, and done little when Epstein had been seen with underage girls while travelling to the islands.
The U.S. Virgin Islands have also claimed that JP Morgan Chase reimbursed Staley for travelling to meet with Epstein and that Staley had spoken of Epstein’s activities with CEO Jamie Dimon in 2006.
Staley has also been subjected to a lawsuit from JP Morgan Chase, which has demanded he personally pays damages from the lawsuits aimed at the bank, accusing him of knowing about Epstein’s behaviour but not disclosing it.
The bank has also expressed that it wants Staley to pay back his wages from 2006 to 2013, a period in which an unnamed Epstein victim claims to have been abused several times in Epstein’s properties in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Florida, New York, and New Mexico.
