Epstein Pal Jes Staley Throws Jamie Dimon Under The Bus, Setting Stage For Massive Legal Battle

Former JPMorgan Chase executive Jes Staley has thrown CEO Jamie Dimon under the bus over the bank’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein – claiming in legal documents that he and Dimon communicated about the convicted sex offender.

Dimon maintains he had no such conversations, the Wall Street Journal reports, while Staley claims he knew about Epstein’s sex trafficking operation and that he regrets his friendship with Epstein.

According to the filing, Staley says that he and Dimon communicated when Epstein was arrested in 2006 and 2008 when Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution, and served 13 months in a work-release program. Staley also claims that Dimon communicated with him several times through 2012 about whether to maintain Epstein as a client.

“There is no evidence that any such communications ever occurred—nothing in the voluminous number of documents reviewed and nothing in the nearly dozen depositions taken, including that of our own CEO,” said a spokeswoman for JPMorgan, adding that Dimon doesn’t believe such conversations with Staley ever happened. “The one person who claims this to be true is currently accused of horrific acts and dishonesty.”

The statements arose as part of a pair of lawsuits against the bank in a federal court in Manhattan. The government of the U.S. Virgin Islands and an unnamed woman, who said she was abused by Epstein, sued JPMorgan last year, claiming that the bank facilitated Epstein’s alleged sex trafficking. 

The bank has sought to pin the bulk of the relationship on Staley and sued him claiming he misled executives about Epstein. The bank in its lawsuit identified Staley as the “powerful financial executive” accused of sexual assault by the woman who is suing JPMorgan. Staley’s lawyers have said the allegations against him are baseless. -WSJ

“Rather than mislead anyone about what was or was not said, why don’t they just agree to release the whole transcript?” said an Epstein accuser’s attorney, Brad Edwards, referring to Dimon’s deposition.

Epstein died in jail following his 2019 arrest on federal sex-trafficking charges. The pedophile, who became a JPMorgan client around 1998 – bringing the bank hundreds of millions of dollars, formed a close bond with Staley, who eventually oversaw JPMorgan’s investment bank.

In August 2008, a few weeks after Epstein’s guilty plea, a JPMorgan employee sent an email that suggested Dimon would review the Epstein relationship, according to the U.S. Virgin Islands lawsuit. The email states, “I would count Epstein’s assets as a probable outflow for ’08 ($120mm or so?) as I can’t imagine it will stay (pending Dimon review).” 

The bank has said that there is no record of such a review and that Dimon doesn’t recall one. -JPMorgan

According to the Daily Mail, JPMorgan executive Mary Erdoes, who has been with the bank since 1996, continued to meet with Epstein for years after his conviction, and allowed him to stay on as a client despite the bank becoming aware of suspicious withdrawals as early as 2006.

The bank finally severed ties with Epstein in 2013, citing him routinely withdrawing large amounts of cash. A 2006 report showed Epstein had withdrawn amounts as large as $80,000 several times, amounting to more than $750,000 in one year. -Daily Mail

Erdoes said during a deposition this week that she didn’t think it was her responsibility to flag Epstein’s accounts for review. Staley, her supervisor, allegedly asked Epstein about the allegations in person, the Washington Post reports – glazing over the fact that Staley and Epstein had a Disney princess-themed email exchange alluding to sex acts.