A federal US judge rejected requests to sever JP Morgan’s lawsuit accusing former executive Jes Staley of concealing what he knew about Jeffrey Epstein from two related lawsuits over the bank’s work for the convicted sex offender.
Monday’s decision by Judge Jed Rakoff in US district court in Manhattan is a defeat for Staley, as well as for women who claim Epstein sexually abused them and who are also suing the largest American bank.
Epstein was a JP Morgan client from 2000 to 2013. The US Virgin Islands, where he had a home, is also suing JP Morgan. A trial is scheduled for 23 October.
Staley, 66, who also spent six years as chief executive of Barclays before resigning in November 2021, said the trial schedule left him too little time to defend against JP Morgan’s “slanderous” accusations.
Epstein’s accusers, meanwhile, accused JP Morgan of suing Staley as a means to “harass and intimidate” them into revealing private medical records and communications in their case.
But the judge called Staley a “prominent focus” of all three cases and noted that his Washington law firm Williams & Connolly calls itself as one of the world’s “premier” litigation firms.
“None of Staley’s whines remotely warrants either a severance or a change in the joint trial date,” Rakoff wrote.
The judge also said Epstein’s accusers “cannot have been blind” to their need to disclose sensitive information.
A lawyer for Staley, Brendan Sullivan, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A lawyer for the accusers, Brad Edwards, said in an email: “The decision is in accord with the law. The survivors we represent are strong and will not cower to bullying by banks, so we will continue to prove what is a very strong case.”
The US Virgin Islands seeks unspecified damages in its lawsuit while the accusers are seeking potentially billions of dollars in theirs.
JP Morgan sued Staley last month to have him cover its losses in both lawsuits and forfeit eight years of compensation.
Staley has expressed regret for his friendly relationship with Epstein and denied knowing about his alleged crimes.
He has also been accused of swapping sexually suggestive messages with Epstein about young women and committing sexual assault himself. Staley denies wrongdoing.
Epstein died by suicide aged 66 in August 2019 in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial for sex trafficking. He had previously pleaded guilty in a state court in Florida in 2008 of procuring a child for prostitution and of soliciting a prostitute.