Jes Staley, the previous JPMorgan Chase govt who’s being sued by the financial institution for allegedly failing to reveal his participation in Jeffrey Epstein’s intercourse crimes, should face trial alongside his former employer, a New York decide has dominated.
Staley on Monday misplaced his bid to have the claims by the financial institution separated from two lawsuits introduced towards JPMorgan by an alleged Epstein sufferer and the US Virgin Islands, the place the late paedophile had a house.
JPMorgan’s claims towards Staley have been “intently associated” to these made within the different civil lawsuits, Decide Jed Rakoff dominated, including that Staley was a “key determine” within the complaints towards the banks. Rakoff mentioned the trio of complaints could be heard collectively in October as deliberate.
The fits towards JPMorgan accuse the financial institution of benefiting from human trafficking by sustaining Epstein as a consumer for 15 years regardless of quite a few inside warnings about his unlawful behaviour.
Staley, who was for a interval Epstein’s personal banker at JPMorgan, was sued by the financial institution final month after attorneys for the lender mentioned new particulars in regards to the relationship between the 2 males had emerged throughout an interview with the alleged Epstein sufferer. They mentioned the brand new particulars included allegations that the 66-year-old banker had sexually assaulted the girl in query.
The financial institution has branded the claims introduced towards it as “meritless” and requested the court docket to make its former govt accountable for any damages that is perhaps awarded towards it. It’s making an attempt to claw again tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} of Staley’s pay.
“The info regarding [Staley] will due to this fact be a outstanding focus of the trial of the underlying case,” Rakoff wrote on Monday, including that it could make “no sense” to conform to Staley’s attorneys’ request to sever JPMorgan’s case towards the chief from the 2 towards the financial institution.
“None of Staley’s whines remotely warrants both a severance or a change within the joint trial date,” Rakoff wrote.
Attorneys for the Epstein sufferer suing JPMorgan had additionally argued for the instances to be separated. They mentioned the financial institution’s countersuit towards Staley was designed to “harass and intimidate” her, as her personal medical data and intimate communications would now be shared with one among her alleged abusers.
The decide mentioned the “correct means” to resolve such considerations was to maintain the proof gathered by attorneys confidential, as JPMorgan had already agreed.
A lawyer for the alleged Epstein sufferer didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
A lawyer for Staley declined to remark. The previous banker, who left JPMorgan in 2013, is about to be questioned underneath oath by the financial institution’s attorneys later this month.
Rakoff did agree to increase a pre-trial procedural deadline by seven weeks after Staley’s lawyer had argued that his consumer would wish extra time to overview tens of 1000’s of paperwork associated to the case.
Monday’s selections by the decide got here after Staley broke his silence final week to say, through his lawyer, that the allegations towards him have been “baseless, however critical” and to accuse JPMorgan of slandering him.
After JPMorgan and a stint at a hedge fund, Staley turned chief govt of the British financial institution Barclays in 2015. He resigned after six years following a regulatory investigation within the UK into the best way he characterised his relationship with Epstein.
Individually on Monday, in a response to the grievance towards the financial institution by the alleged Epstein sufferer, JPMorgan denied that longstanding chief govt Jamie Dimon knew of Staley’s “private involvement” with Epstein.
Within the new submitting, the financial institution additionally denied that Dimon knew Epstein had been arrested for solicitation in Florida in 2006 or subsequently registered as a intercourse offender within the state. Dimon is about to be deposed in Could.
