JPMorgan Chase sued former executive James Edward “Jes” Staley, who was largely responsible for JPMorgan’s 15-year financial relationship with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The US Virgin Islands government filed a lawsuit against JPMorgan in December, alleging the bank “had a more than close-up view of Epstein’s sex-trafficking” and “ignored obvious red flags relating to Epstein’s accounts.” Epstein was convicted of sex crimes in 2008 and died by suicide while detained in 2019.
By suing Staley, JPMorgan brings its former executive and former Barclays CEO into the court case as a defendant. The US Virgin Islands’ suit did not name Staley as a defendant and he has not been charged criminally with any activities related to Epstein.
An attorney representing Staley did not immediately respond to request for comment.
If successful, JPMorgan’s maneuver could make Staley financially responsible if JPMorgan loses its case.
Staley allegedly exchanged sexually suggestive emails with Epstein, some of which included photos of young women, according to unsealed passages of a federal lawsuit.
Those email exchanges allegedly continued long after Epstein was convicted, the US Virgin Islands government wrote in its complaint.
The US Virgin Islands attorney general in December claimed that JPMorgan should have known about Epstein’s activities on Little St. James Island, the island he owned off the coast of St. Thomas. The bank has moved to dismiss the suit and has denied the allegations in the complaint.
- CNN’s Nicole Goodkind and Andy Rose contributed to this report
