A victim of Jeffrey Epstein suing JPMorgan Chase & Co. for benefiting from his sex trafficking operation lost a bid to have the bank’s lawyers disqualified from the case.
(Bloomberg) — A victim of Jeffrey Epstein suing JPMorgan Chase & Co. for benefiting from his sex trafficking operation lost a bid to have the bank’s lawyers disqualified from the case.
US District Judge Jed Rakoff on Thursday denied the plaintiff’s attempt to disqualify WilmerHale on grounds the firm had previously represented an organization supporting another Epstein victim as the motion lacked merit.
In filing the motion on May 4, Bradley Edwards, a lawyer for Epstein victim Jane Doe, had argued that WilmerHale had a conflict of interest because it previously represented ECPAT-USA, an anti-trafficking policy group that filed an amicus brief on behalf of Epstein victim Courtney Wild. Wild sued Epstein in federal court in Florida to set aside an agreement that immunized Epstein from federal prosecution, Bloomberg previously reported.
But Rakoff found Edwards had not demonstrated that Wild communicated confidential information to WilmerHale that was material to the current litigation. The two cases also dealt with very different issues, he wrote. He also noted that Edwards filed the motion five months after WilmerHale first appeared on behalf of JPMorgan in the case.
The plaintiff’s argument “did not lessen the great prejudice that JPMorgan would suffer if its chosen counsel were disqualified so late in this litigation,” Rakoff wrote in his order.
Two Epstein victims, each identified only as Jane Doe, have sued JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank AG alleging the banks helped facilitate Epstein’s operation and willfully failed to file suspicious activity reports that would have aided investigations into his conduct.
The cases are Jane Doe 1 v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, 22-cv-10019; Jane Doe 1 v. Deutsche Bank, 22-cv-10018, and USVI v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, 22-cv-10904-UA, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.