A federal judge ordered a victim of Jeffrey Epstein who is suing Deutsche Bank AG to reveal her name to JPMorgan Chase & Co. and former executive Jes Staley, who are embroiled in a legal fight over claims they benefitted from the disgraced financier’s sex trafficking.
(Bloomberg) — A federal judge ordered a victim of Jeffrey Epstein who is suing Deutsche Bank AG to reveal her name to JPMorgan Chase & Co. and former executive Jes Staley, who are embroiled in a legal fight over claims they benefitted from the disgraced financier’s sex trafficking.
JPMorgan, facing a separate suit by a Jane Doe victim of Epstein, said it needed to know the identity of the Deutsche Bank plaintiff because she may have knowledge of the inner workings of Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation and his relationships with associates like Staley. Staley also asked for her name to avoid being subject to an “ambush” by JPMorgan, which is suing him to cover its potential liability for having Epstein as a client between 1998 and 2013.
US District Judge Jed Rakoff on Wednesday ordered the victim to reveal her identity to JPMorgan and Staley on a confidential basis, saying that while the victim “has a significant privacy interest that weighs against such disclosure,” the parties “have provided the court with strong reason to believe that she has information that is relevant to their defenses.”
A lawyer representing both victims opposed revealing the Deutsche Bank Jane Doe’s identity, saying she had only limited information relevant to JPMorgan and Staley that did not outweigh her privacy interests.
Epstein moved most of his accounts to Deutsche Bank after JPMorgan cut ties with him in 2013, and Deutsche Bank dropped Epstein as a client in 2018. Both banks have denied knowledge of Epstein’s crimes, and Staley, who went on to become chief executive officer of Barclays Plc before stepping down in 2021 over his Epstein ties, has called the allegations baseless and slanderous.
The cases are Jane Doe 1 v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, 22-cv-10019, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan) and Jane Doe 1 v. Deutsche Bank, 22-cv-10018, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan)
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