JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon may have ordered a 2019 review of the bank's relationship with sex predator Jeffrey Epstein, emails released as part of an ongoing lawsuit suggest.
In a letter unsealed on Tuesday, the US Virgin Islands made the claim in its lawsuit accusing the largest US bank of ignoring Epstein's sexual abuses and letting him run a sex trafficking operation.
Internal emails show that following Epstein's July 2019 arrest on sex trafficking charges, JPMorgan conducted an internal review review known as 'Project Jeep' investigating the bank's relationship with Epstein.
The review included emails between Epstein and Jes Staley, former friend and JPMorgan private banking chief whom the bank has tried to blame for its client relationship with Epstein.
In a July 2019 email, JPMorgan's head of financial crimes compliance Peter Neilson wrote that he was working on the review with input from 'top of house,' which attorneys for the Virgin Islands argue is a reference to Dimon.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon may have ordered a 2019 review of the bank's relationship with sex predator Jeffrey Epstein, emails released as part of an ongoing lawsuit suggest
In a July 2019 email, JPMorgan's head of financial crimes compliance Peter Neilson wrote that he was working on the review with input from 'top of house'
'Top of house requested that we expand our analysis to related parties and put together slides. Should have in a few days. We are treating it as a project at this point,' Neilson wrote in the email.
Epstein had been a JPMorgan client from 1998 until the bank terminated him in 2013, years after he was convicted of soliciting a minor for sex in a Florida state case.
He died of an apparent suicide in August 2019 in a Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial on federal charges of sex trafficking dozens of girls as young 14.
In a May 26 deposition, Dimon said he never met Epstein, did not recall discussing his accounts internally, and barely knew who Epstein was prior to the July 2019 arrest.
The US Virgin Islands wanted Dimon to sit for a second deposition after additional documents about Epstein and Staley surfaced, including the emails cited in the newly unsealed letter.
However, US District Judge Jed Rakoff, who oversees the lawsuit, denied that request for a second deposition on Friday.
JPMorgan declined to comment when reached by DailyMail.com on Tuesday. The bank has previously denied any wrongdoing, but said it regrets taking on Epstein as a client.
'Project Jeep' found that former JPMorgan exec Jes Staley was 'regularly communicating' with Epstein and seeking his advice, even while he was jailed in Florida
JPMorgan has attempted to to pin any blame on former executive Jes Staley, who had close ties with Epstein and once referred to their friendship as 'profound,' according to court filings
Epstein had been a JPMorgan client from 1998 until the bank terminated him in 2013. He died of an apparent suicide in August 2019 in a Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial
In the newly unsealed June 7 letter, the US Virgin Islands cited Neilson's email referring to a 'project' ordered by 'top of house'.
That review turned into Project Jeep - a portmanteau drawn from Epstein's first and last names - the bank's review of its client relationship with the sex offender.
USVI attorneys argued that 'top of house' was a reference to Dimon, citing other JPMorgan communications that used the phrase to refer to the CEO.
In October 2019, another internal JPMorgan email with the subject line 'Project Jeep Current Review' referred to a 22-page summary of emails primarily between and among Epstein, Staley and others.
That summary 'was prepared as part of Project Jeep, which the documents suggest may have been ordered by Dimon himself, not by the legal department and not in relation to any pending or anticipated litigation,' the US Virgin Islands said.
The review showed Staley seeking Epstein's advice on issues such as his own compensation and the 2008 financial crisis, including some messages while Epstein was jailed after pleading guilty to a Florida state prostitution charge.
'I hope you keep the island,' Staley wrote Epstein on September 29, 2008, two weeks after Lehman Brothers collapsed. 'We may all need to live there.'
Staley has acknowledged being friendly with Epstein, but denied knowing about his sex trafficking. His lawyers did not immediately respond to requests on Tuesday for comment.
A spokesperson for the Virgin Islands said the bank's senior executives 'ignored the evidence of Jeffrey Epstein's crimes.'
Little St. James Island, one of the US Virgin Islands properties of financier Jeffrey Epstein, is seen in an aerial view in 2019
JPMorgan last week agreed to settle a similar lawsuit brought by Epstein victims for $290 million.
The US Virgin Islands lawsuit is scheduled for an October 23 trial in Manhattan federal court.
JPMorgan is suing Staley to cover its losses in the US Virgin Islands' and Epstein victims' lawsuits.
Staley, 66, led JPMorgan's asset management business from 2001 to 2009, and its corporate and investment bank from 2009 to 2013. He later spent six years as Barclays Plc's chief executive.
JPMorgan is separately suing Staley to cover its losses in the lawsuits filed by the USVI and Epstein's victims, also demanding he forfeit eight years of pay.
Staley has denied any wrongdoing, and asked Judge Rakoff to dismiss the bank's case, accusing JPMorgan of using him as a 'public relations shield' to deflect blame for its own failures in working with Epstein.
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