Lawyers for Jes Staley have attacked JPMorgan Chase’s attempt to hold its former executive liable for harm caused by providing banking services to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, arguing the case was “completely absent” of concrete claims.
“They had several months of discovery to review Mr. Staley’s emails. . . to do their best,” Staley’s attorney, Stephen Wohlgemuth, said Friday in federal court in New York, seeking to have the case dismissed. “They have to make the allegations. . . they must say what is true and what is not.
JP Morgan continued Staleywho spent more than 30 years at the bank, in March alleging he breached his fiduciary duties and acted in bad faith by disguising his true relationship with Epstein, which allegedly included multiple visits to the properties of the disgraced financier and emails in which photographs of the young women were exchanged.
The bank is seeking to hold the 66-year-old liable for damages awarded in two cases brought against JP Morgan last year by an anonymous accuser of Epstein and by the US Virgin Islands, where Epstein had a home. These lawsuits accuse JPMorgan of profiting from human trafficking by keeping Epstein as a client for 15 years, despite numerous red flags.
Staley, who was fired by JPMorgan in 2013, is himself accused by Epstein’s victim of rape and witnessing Epstein’s crimes – claims he has strongly denied. The bank said it first learned of the claims in recent months.
Leonard Gail, a lawyer for JPMorgan, reiterated the bank’s claim that Epstein was retained because “Staley vouched for [him] within the bank” and that the former officer should be liable because “all the damages or injuries alleged by the plaintiffs arise from [Epstein] to be a customer”.
However, as JPMorgan sought to hold Staley liable for assurances he allegedly gave the bank about Epstein, he had not specified how and when they were made, Wohlgemuth said. The U.S. Virgin Islands complaint against JPMorgan cites an internal meeting in January 2011 after which Staley was asked to comment on Epstein and allegedly vouched for him, but the bank has not confirmed whether this incident actually happened, he added.
“This alleged respondent. . . allegedly made to JPMorgan employees,” Wohlgemuth said. “What does the bank say? Was there a guarantor? What did Mr. Staley actually say. . . who did he tell and why did they trust him? he asked.
“It’s their burden, and they haven’t even tried to take it on,” Wohlgemuth said.
Judge Jed Rakoff said he would rule on the motion to dismiss by the end of the month. Staley – who became chief executive of UK bank Barclays but quit following an investigation into how he characterized his relationship with Epstein – is expected to be filed by JPMorgan lawyers next month.