Jes Staley, former CEO of Barclays
Justin Solomon | CNBC
A federal judge on Wednesday denied a bid by former JPMorgan Chase executive Jes Staley to dismiss a lawsuit by the bank that seeks to hold him legally liable for sex trafficking by former JPMorgan customer Jeffrey Epstein.
The ruling in U.S. District Court in Manhattan came two days before JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon is scheduled to be deposed in lawsuits by the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands and an Epstein accuser against the bank over its relationship with the late predator.
The Virgin Islands alleges in its suit, filed in December, that JPMorgan facilitated and financially benefited from the trafficking of young women by Epstein to his private island in the American territory to be abused by him and others there.
Epstein was a long-time client of the bank until 2013.
In March, as part of its legal response to the Virgin Islands lawsuit and the similar one by the “Jane Doe” accuser, JPMorgan filed a so-called third-party complaint against Staley.
That action argues that if the Virgin Islands proves its allegations that “Staley is solely liable to the USVI, or liable to JPMC for all sums awarded to the USVI and against JPMC, if any, at trial.”
Staley, who had been a main point of contact at the bank for Epstein, last month asked Judge Jed Rakoff to toss out the complaint against him by JPMorgan.
Rakoff in a brief order denied “Staley’s motion in full.”
“An opinion explaining the reasoning behind this ruling will follow in due course,” the judge wrote.
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This story originally appeared on CNBC
