By JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon will be deposed in late May over two days for civil lawsuits accusing the giant bank of benefiting from sex trafficking by the late money manager Jeffrey Epstein, a source told CNBC’s Eamon Javers on Wednesday.
Dimon’s questioning under oath will occur in New York, on May 26 and 27, a Friday and Saturday, the source said.
A person with knowledge of Dimon’s deposition said, “The scheduling is fluid and could change.”
The government of the U.S. Virgin Islands and one of Epstein’s accusers are suing JPMorgan in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. The bank has denied any wrongdoing.
Epstein was a customer of JPMorgan for years. The bank only cut ties with him in 2013, five years after he pleaded guilty in Florida state court to soliciting sex from an underage girl.
“Jamie Dimon knew in 2008 that his billionaire client was a sex trafficker,” an attorney for the Virgin Islands said at a court hearing in March.
The bank has said Dimon did not have knowledge about Epstein that was relevant to the lawsuits.
In addition to lawyers for the Virgin Islands and Epstein’s accuser, lawyers for Jes Staley, JPMorgan’s former investment banking chief, will get to question Dimon.
JPMorgan argues that Staley, not the bank, is legally responsible for any civil liability related to its dealings with Epstein.
On Wednesday, attorneys in the suits were scheduled to depose William Langford, who previously served as a top JPMorgan executive responsible for anti-money laundering efforts, financial crimes compliance and regulatory management.
The Virgin Islands’ lawsuit claims that JPMorgan “facilitated and concealed wire and cash transactions that raised suspicion of — and were in fact part of — a criminal enterprise whose currency was for the sexual servitude of dozens of women and girls in and beyond the Virgin Islands.”
“Human trafficking was the [principal] business of the accounts Epstein maintained at JP Morgan,” the suit says.
Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019, a month after being arrested on federal child sex trafficking charges.
He previously was a friend of two former presidents, Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, and Britain’s Prince Andrew, as well as a slew of other rich and powerful people.
Correction: A previous headline cited multiple sources for the timing of Jamie Dimon’s expected deposition when there was only one source. CNBC has since confirmed the timing with multiple sources.
Additional reporting by CNBC’s Hugh Son
