Jes Staley’s Lawyers Slam JPMorgan’s ‘Absent’ Claims About Ties to Jeffrey Epstein

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Jes Staley’s lawyers have attacked JPMorgan Chase’s attempt to hold its former executive liable for damages caused by providing banking services to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, arguing the case was “completely absent” of substantive claims.

“They had several months of discovery to go through Mr. Staley’s emails. . . to bring their best shot,” Staley’s attorney Stephen Wohlgemuth said in a New York federal court on Friday in a bid to get the case dismissed. “They have to make the accusations. . . they have to say what is true and what is not.”

JP Morgan sued Staleywho spent more than 30 years at the bank, in March alleging that he violated his fiduciary duties and acted in bad faith by disguising his true relationship with Epstein, which reportedly included several visits to the disgraced financier’s properties and e- emails in which photographs of young women were exchanged.

The bank is asking to compensate the 66-year-old for damages awarded in two lawsuits filed against JP Morgan last year by an anonymous accuser of Epstein and from the US Virgin Islands, where Epstein had a home. Those 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 rape victim and assisting in Epstein’s crimes — claims he has vehemently denied. The bank said it first learned of these claims in recent months.

Leonard Gail, a JPMorgan attorney, reiterated the bank’s claim that Epstein was held because “Staley vouched for [him] within the bank” and that the former executive should be liable because “all damages or injuries that the plaintiffs allege arise from [Epstein] be a customer”.

However, while JPMorgan was trying to make Staley responsible for the insurance it would provide to the bank Epstein, it was not specified how and when they were made, Wohlgemuth said. The US Virgin Islands complaint against JPMorgan cites an internal meeting in January 2011, after which Staley was asked his opinion about Epstein and allegedly vouched for him, but the bank failed to confirm whether this incident actually occurred. verified, he added.

“This alleged guarantee . . . would have been done to JPMorgan employees,” Wohlgemuth said. “What does the bank say? Was there a guarantee? What did Mr. Staley actually say? . . who did he tell and why did they rely on it?

“This is their burden, and they haven’t even tried to address it.”

Judge Jed Rakoff said he will rule on the motion to dismiss by the end of the month. Staley – who became chief executive of British bank Barclays but resigned following an investigation into the way he characterized his relationship with Epstein – will be deposed by JPMorgan lawyers next month.