JPMorgan Chase’s resolution to cease doing enterprise with Jeffrey Epstein turned simpler after there was nobody on the financial institution to advocate for him, a high govt on the nation’s largest lender stated in a deposition taken in reference to two lawsuits arising from the establishment’s practically 15-year relationship with the disgraced financier.

Mary Erdoes, head of JPMorgan’s asset and wealth administration division, stated in a March deposition reviewed by The New York Times that she determined to dismiss Mr. Epstein as a shopper in summer season 2013 due to considerations about repeated giant money withdrawals from his many accounts with the financial institution.

She stated an annual assessment of Mr. Epstein’s accounts passed off a number of months after James E. Staley, who had been a high non-public banker at JPMorgan and the primary advocate of Mr. Epstein, left the financial institution in January 2013.

Ms. Erdoes stated Mr. Epstein, who turned a registered intercourse offender after a 2008 responsible plea in Florida to soliciting prostitution from a teenage lady, was thought-about a “high risk client.” She stated she hadn’t recognized when Mr. Epstein was labeled such.

“Mr. Staley was Mr. Epstein’s advocate in the bank and was the senior relationship manager for Mr. Epstein,” Ms. Erdoes stated. “And without someone there advocating for Mr. Epstein and the situation that I viewed, I was exiting Mr. Epstein.”

A decade after JPMorgan ended its dealings with Mr. Epstein, and practically 4 years after his suicide whereas he awaited trial on federal intercourse trafficking expenses, the difficulty of what executives on the nation’s largest financial institution knew about Mr. Epstein’s abuse of dozens of teenage ladies and younger girls is important within the lawsuits dealing with the financial institution.

The two fits — one introduced by legal professionals representing Mr. Epstein’s victims and the opposite by the federal government of the U.S. Virgin Islands — declare that JPMorgan ignored a number of warnings that Mr. Epstein was utilizing cash in his dozens of accounts on the financial institution to finance illicit sexual actions at his residences in New York, Florida and the Virgin Islands. The lawsuits contend that JPMorgan selected to maintain Mr. Epstein as a shopper after he turned a registered intercourse offender as a result of he was bringing enterprise to the financial institution.

A blame sport can be occurring at JPMorgan, with some suggesting that Mr. Staley ought to have recognized about Mr. Epstein’s intercourse trafficking on the time, and that he had the obligation to let others know. The financial institution has named Mr. Staley as a third-party defendant within the lawsuits in a bid to carry him responsible for any damages JPMorgan could need to pay.

Mr. Staley, who’s scheduled to be deposed as quickly as subsequent week, has argued in court docket papers that he did nothing unsuitable or inappropriate. His legal professionals didn’t return requests for remark.

Better generally known as “Jes” on Wall Street, Mr. Staley needed to resign as chief govt of Barclays in 2021 following an investigation by British regulators into how he had characterised his prior relationship with Mr. Epstein.

JPMorgan has repeatedly denied any information of Mr. Epstein’s intercourse crimes. In a press release, the financial institution stated of Mr. Epstein that “in hindsight, any association with him was a mistake and we regret it, but we did not help him commit his heinous crimes.”

David Boies, a lawyer for the victims suing the financial institution, stated Ms. Erdoes and others at JPMorgan, for a while, “were fully aware of Epstein’s large cash withdrawals and Epstein’s sex trafficking.”

So far, dozens of depositions have been taken within the litigation, with Judge Jed S. Rakoff of Federal District Court in Manhattan placing them on a quick monitor. On Friday, Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan’s chief govt, testified for a number of hours throughout a deposition on the financial institution’s Manhattan headquarters.

Lawyers have been debating how a lot of Mr. Dimon’s deposition might be made public. The financial institution issued a press release on Friday that stated Mr. Dimon had by no means met or emailed Mr. Epstein and “does not recall ever discussing his accounts internally, and was not involved in any decisions about his account.”

Mr. Dimon’s testimony may very well be essential as a result of Mr. Staley, when he ran the financial institution’s non-public wealth group and later its funding financial institution, reported on to him.

In Ms. Erdoes’s deposition, parts of which have been earlier reported by The Washington Post, she stated she believed Mr. Staley had reported on to Mr. Dimon from 2006 till he left the financial institution. Ms. Erdoes has reported on to Mr. Dimon since 2009, she stated, and earlier than that to Mr. Staley.

In her deposition, Ms. Erdoes stated that she didn’t know why Mr. Staley had left the financial institution however that it was her understanding “it was a mutual decision.”

Ms. Erodes stated in her deposition that she personally knowledgeable Mr. Epstein that she was dismissing him as a shopper in summer season 2013, throughout a go to to his Manhattan house. She stated it was solely the second time she had met him in particular person.

Ms. Erdoes stated she was not glad with Mr. Epstein’s clarification that giant money withdrawals have been related solely together with his air journey. But when legal professionals for the victims requested her whether or not the withdrawals could have been for funds to “women and girls,” Ms. Erdoes stated she wasn’t positive what Mr. Epstein did with the funds.

When requested why comparable money withdrawals by Mr. Epstein had not led to his dismissal earlier, Ms. Erdoes stated she wasn’t “privy to those discussions.”

A court docket doc filed within the litigation suggests Mr. Epstein’s transactions had raised warning indicators inside the financial institution for years. In the court docket doc — initially filed publicly however now underneath seal — JPMorgan stated dozens of financial institution workers had been concerned in figuring out whether or not suspicious exercise studies, or SARs, must be filed about a few of Mr. Epstein’s transactions from 2000 to 2019.

The doc supplied no particulars on these transactions. Banks file SARs with U.S. regulators to alert them to potential cash laundering, fraud or different criminal activity.

The similar doc additionally reported that in fall 2019 the financial institution’s board held two conferences to debate “Epstein-related issues.” The doc didn’t present any info on these conferences, which occurred shortly after Mr. Epstein’s loss of life. The doc famous that through the 15 years the financial institution did enterprise with Mr. Epstein, the board by no means met to debate the financial institution’s dealings with him.

The board conferences got here across the time that quite a few news organizations, together with The Times, have been reporting on the financial institution’s relationship with Mr. Epstein and his shut ties with Mr. Staley.

Judge Rakoff, who’s presiding over each fits, is contemplating whether or not to grant class-action standing to the lawsuit introduced on behalf of Mr. Epstein’s victims. That standing might allow nicely over 100 girls to share in any settlement with the financial institution.

The legal professionals for the victims have already reached a tentative $75 million class action settlement with Deutsche Bank, which turned Mr. Epstein’s major financial institution after JPMorgan fired him as a shopper in 2013. Deutsche Bank ended its relationship with Mr. Epstein in late 2018.

In her deposition, Ms. Erdoes stated she “did not recall any conversation with anyone at Deutsche Bank about Mr. Epstein,” or JPMorgan’s resolution to cease doing enterprise with him.