Jeffrey Epstein referred Obama White House counsel to JPMorgan

Sex predator Jeffrey Epstein was involved in establishing a client relationship between Obama White House attorney Kathryn Ruemmler and JPMorgan Chase in February 2019, four months before his arrest on federal child sex trafficking charges, a bomb court the confrontation was announced on Tuesday.

Ruemmler, who is now general counsel for Goldman Sachswas considered by Epstein’s personal assistant at JPMorgan as an ideal customer, the filing shows.

The suggestion that JPMorgan take on Ruemmler as a client — which was warmly welcomed by the bank — comes nearly six years after JPMorgan said it effectively fired Epstein as a client after internal controls were repeatedly upended. red flags about him.

And it came five months before Epstein killed himself in August 2019 in a Manhattan federal prison, where he was being held without bail pending trial.

Ruemmler declined to comment through a Goldman Sachs spokeswoman.

CNBC emailed him separately to ask how he met Epstein, and what he knew about his history with a 2008 sex crime conviction in Florida.

The Manhattan federal court filing detailing his connection to Epstein was filed by the government of the US Virgin Islands, which is suing JPMorgan.

The US territory alleges that JPMorgan enabled and profited from Epstein’s sex trafficking of young women in the Virgin Islands, where he had a home, to people with whom he maintained bank accounts, from 1998 to 2013.

JPMorgan denies any wrongdoing in the case, for which the territory is seeking at least $190 million in damages.

The bank last month agreed to settle a similar lawsuit in the same court as an Epstein accuser, paying $290 million to him and other Epstein victims.

The case is scheduled to go to trial in late October.

“Even after his departure until his arrest in 2019, JPMorgan continued to work with Epstein,” the Virgin Islands said in its filing.

The filing says JPMorgan admitted that Epstein “was involved in establishing a client relationship with Kathryn Ruemmler,” who was the White House’s longest-serving general counsel under former President Barack Obama.

The filing alleges that in February 2019 Epstein’s assistant, Leslie Groff, offered to introduce Mary Erdoes, a top JPMorgan executive, to Ruemmler, because she wanted to open an account with JPMorgan and Epstein thought the two of them will “bind.”

“Erdoes raised the referral to Stacey Friedman, General Counsel of JPMorgan, who responded ‘he’s a rock star litigator at Latham. . . . I would think he would be a great client,'” Virgin Islands said in its filing. .

Ruemmler at the time worked at the law firm Latham & Watkins.

In 2020, he joined Goldman Sachs as a partner, and is now Goldman’s chief legal officer and general counsel.

The filing also said Epstein once identified as a potential JPMorgan client Nicholas Ribis, a gaming consultant who for decades ran casinos for former President Donald Trump.

Ribis did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

JPMorgan claimed in court filings that the Virgin Islands itself was “complicit in Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes,” arguing that he provided money, advice and favors to high-ranking government officials in exchange for looking the other way when he trafficked young women.

JPMorgan also argued that its former executive Jes Staley, who was friends with Epstein when he was a client of the bank, is responsible for any civil liability the bank had because of its business relationship with the sex offender.

On Tuesday, the bank’s newly unsealed court filings show that Epstein was questioned by former US Virgin Islands Gov. John de Jongh Jr. for a loan of $215,000 after de Jongh arrested in squandering charges that were later dismissed.

Epstein’s company also paid de Jongh’s wife, Cecile, a $300,000 lump sum severance payment after Epstein killed himself in a federal prison while awaiting trial on child sex trafficking charges in August 2019, JPMorgan documents said. He worked for Epstein at his Southern Trust Company.

The documents also say that another Epstein employee who worked for him in the Virgin Islands was issued a US Customs and Border Protection security seal, allowing that worker to “escort passengers through” the customs screening area.

The bank said in other court filings that Epstein paid the school fees of the de Jonghs’ children, and that Cecile worked to obtain student visas and work licenses for young women connected to Epstein. .

A spokesperson for the Virgin Islands’ Attorney General’s Office told CNBC that Epstein’s debt to former Gov. de Jongh occurred after he left office in 2015. Charges against de Jongh were dropped in early 2016 by the Virgin Islands Department of Justice after he agreed to a separate financial settlement.

CNBC reached out for comment from John de Jongh through an asset management company where he is a director.

The Virgin Islands spokesperson also said that “the federal government and not the government of the Virgin Islands issued the ‘US Customs and Border Protection security seal.’ “

The Virgin Islands said JPMorgan management kept Epstein as a client for years despite numerous warnings about his rise within the bank, which included payments to young women, and a 2008 sex crime conviction in Florida that led to prison terms.

In its new court filing Tuesday, the Virgin Islands cited a July 2011 email between Epstein and Erdoes, after JPMorgan’s rapid response team decided Epstein should leave as a client, and after the JPMorgan general counsel to Erdoes that Epstein is “not someone we should be doing business with — period.”

Erdoes and Epstein emailed after he and the bank agreed to settle his lawsuit against JPMorgan related to money he said he was owed by Bear Stearns, the investment bank JPMorgan took over.

“On July 26, 2011, Epstein wrote to Erdoes, ‘let [sic] continue, [sic] and make some money,'” the filing said.

“Erdoes replied, ‘Onwards and upwards, on so many fronts,’ ” the filing said.

Epstein was not cut as a JPMorgan client for another two years.

The new filing in the Virgin Islands alleges that Staley, in his deposition for the case, disclosed the names of people and companies Epstein referred to the bank as potential clients. An unsealed portion of Staley’s deposition was made public Tuesday.

Among the high-powered names listed in the court filing are Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem of Dubai, former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates, former Treasury Department Secretary Larry Summers and television journalist Katie Couric.

Staley, who had been head of the bank’s asset and wealth management division, testified that he met all of those people at Epstein’s townhouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

The deposition also shows that Staley said he spoke with JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon in 2006 when Epstein was arrested on Florida state charges of procuring a minor for prostitution, and soliciting a prostitute.

JPMorgan denied that claim. “Staley admitted that in 2006 Jamie Dimon spoke to him about Epstein’s arrest,” Virgin Islands said in a court filing.

“Staley also testified that on or about July 26, 2006, he spoke with Dimon about the Epstein indictment because Dimon was his boss and the indictment of Epstein, a client of the bank, was ‘a very public event. ‘”

Elsewhere in the deposition, Staley answered questions about going out with Epstein after an article was published in 2006 that said, “Jeffrey Epstein wanted big homes, select friends — and, investigators say, children underage girl.”

The article also stated that two of Epstein’s “former employees told investigators that the girls showed up for massages two or three times a day when Epstein was in town.”

The Virgin Islands filing said, “On July 25, 2006, Staley met with Epstein in person at Epstein’s home. During that visit, Epstein admitted to alleged “sexual conduct for money with young women ” — rejects only ‘age .'”

Staley then wrote Erdoes: “I went and saw him last night. I’ve never seen him so shaken. He’s also vehemently denying his age,” Staley wrote Erdoes, the filing notes.

In his deposition, Staley was asked: “The conduct that he was being accused of, he was admitting that he did it. He was just denying that he knew the age of the victims, right?”

Staley replied, “Right.”

“And you were reporting that back to the bank, that what is being denied is the ages, right?” said a lawyer for the Virgin Islands.

Staley said, “Right.”

He then admitted that the bank knew that Epstein had admitted to having sex for money with young women, while denying that they were minors.

The lawyer then asked, “And so when the bank receives that information, they now know what you know, which is, this is the type of behavior that our client is engaging in, and the only dispute that he has about the allegations is the age of the victims, right?”

Staley replied, “That’s right.”