JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon must undergo up to two days of questioning by lawyers handling lawsuits over whether the bank can be held liable in financier Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of teenage girls and women, a federal judge said Tuesday.
During a telephone conference with lawyers, Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan ordered Dimon to set aside two days for deposition testimony, though he didn’t specify when. He said one day of testimony might be sufficient and lawyers would have to get his approval to continue to a second day.
The New York bank, the nation’s largest, has been sued by the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands and two women, both identified as Jane Doe, who say they were abused by Epstein.
The lawsuits contend JPMorgan should have seen evidence of Epstein’s sex trafficking and avoided profiting from it.
The bank, besides denying the allegations, has sued one of its former executives, saying the man hid Epstein’s decades of sex abuse and trafficking to keep Epstein as a client.
Darin Oduyoye, a JPMorgan spokesperson, said lawyers for the lawsuits against JPMorgan “know our CEO has no relevant knowledge, but persists with this media stunt designed for headlines and clicks.”
He said a review of more than two decades of emails and other documents made it clear that Dimon had no involvement with Epstein or his accounts.
“He does not recall ever meeting, speaking or communicating with him,” Oduyoye said.
Epstein was 66 when he killed himself in a federal jail cell in August 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges. Federal prosecutors had accused him of paying underage girls hundreds of dollars for massages at his homes in Florida and New York, where he then molested them.
Lawyers for JPMorgan did not immediately return messages seeking comment.