This week, the U.S. Virgin Islands and JPMorgan Chase JPM.N traded new accusations in legal filings over their relationships with the deceased disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
While the latter revealed in detail how Epstein allegedly funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments and loans to a former US Virgin Islands governor and his wife, USVI, in a separate filing cited an email from a senior JPMorgan executive in 2011 about suspicious cash withdrawals by Epstein.
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Both sides have filings of over 600 pages in their respective cases.
USVI is seeking at least $190 million from JPMorgan over the bank’s work for Epstein from 1998 to 2013, and damages for Epstein’s abuse victims.
While the documents had been previously submitted to the court, the latest filings contain fewer redactions. A trial is scheduled for Oct. 23.
JPMorgan said former U.S. Virgin Islands Governor John de Jongh and his wife Cecile had an extensive relationship with Epstein that included the receipt of political donations, employment for Cecile, and a $200,000 loan to the family.
JPMorgan in its filing said the territory failed to show why it deserves “victim damages” when “actual victims” of Epstein will receive money from previously announced settlements.
The U.S. Virgin Islands also failed to show that the bank committed obstruction, JPMorgan said.
USVI in response quoted a 2011 email from John Duffy, who led JPMorgan’s private bank at the time, about Epstein’s alleged withdrawals to pay victims. The country also quoted an email exchange the prior month between Epstein and Mary Erdoes, who now leads JPMorgan’s asset and wealth management business.
The de Jonghs, Duffy and Erdoes are not parties to the lawsuit. Epstein died by suicide in August 2019 in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial for sex trafficking.
The bank regretted its association with Epstein, but said it did not aid in his crimes and would not have kept him as a client had it thought he was engaged in sex trafficking.
