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 choose has dominated.
Staley on Monday misplaced his bid to have the claims by the financial institution separated from two lawsuits introduced in opposition to JPMorgan by an alleged Epstein sufferer and the US Virgin Islands, the place the late paedophile had a house.
JPMorgan’s claims in opposition to Staley had been “intently associated” to these made within the different civil lawsuits, Choose Jed Rakoff dominated, including that Staley was a “key determine” within the complaints in opposition to the banks. Rakoff stated the trio of complaints can be heard collectively in October as deliberate.
The fits in opposition to 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 legal professionals for the lender stated new particulars concerning the relationship between the 2 males had emerged throughout an interview with the alleged Epstein sufferer. They stated 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 in opposition to it as “meritless” and requested the court docket to make its former govt chargeable for any damages that is likely to be awarded in opposition to it. It’s making an attempt to claw again tens of tens of millions of {dollars} of Staley’s pay.
“The details referring to [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 comply with Staley’s legal professionals’ request to sever JPMorgan’s case in opposition to the chief from the 2 in opposition to the financial institution.
“None of Staley’s whines remotely warrants both a severance or a change within the joint trial date,” Rakoff wrote.
Legal professionals for the Epstein sufferer suing JPMorgan had additionally argued for the instances to be separated. They stated the financial institution’s countersuit in opposition to Staley was designed to “harass and intimidate” her, as her personal medical information and intimate communications would now be shared with considered one of her alleged abusers.
The choose stated the “correct approach” to resolve such issues was to maintain the proof gathered by legal professionals confidential.
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 ready to be questioned underneath oath by the financial institution’s legal professionals 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 want extra time to assessment tens of 1000’s of paperwork associated to the case.
Monday’s selections by the choose got here after Staley broke his silence final week to say, by way of his lawyer, that the allegations in opposition to him had been “baseless, however severe” 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 way in which he characterised his relationship with Epstein.