JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon claims he had never heard of Epstein before arrest

theguardian.com:

JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon has said in a court deposition that he did not recall ever hearing about convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein or his sexual abuse crimes against teenage girls until the financier was arrested in 2019, countering claims that the bank ignored signs of malfeasance, including Epstein’s large monthly cash withdrawals.

In transcripts of the deposition obtained by the Guardian, Dimon was asked if he had ever heard the name Jeffrey Epstein before the arrest. Dimon responded: “Not that I recall.” He said he first heard about Epstein “when the story blew wide open. He was arrested, and all the stories came out about all the people he knows. And the reason I remember that is I was surprised that I didn’t know about it before.”

The testimony, given during a deposition recorded last week in New York as part of a claim by Epstein victims and the US Virgin Islands that JP Morgan is financially liable for Epstein’s abuse of girls and women because it continued to do business with him for at least six years after he was first charged with sex crimes in Florida.

JP Morgan denies the claims and has sued Jes Staley, a former senior executive at the bank and later Barclays CEO, saying he hid Epstein’s crimes to keep Epstein as a client. JP Morgan has also filed a counter-claim against the US Virgin Islands’ government claiming that the sex trafficker maintained a “quid pro quo relationship” with some of the territory’s highest officials over two decades.

Those claims center on Cecile deJongh, wife of former US Virgin Islands’ governor John deJongh, who JP Morgan says facilitated Epstein’s abuse of women and girls by helping him influence local politicians, dodge the territory’s sex offender laws and obtain work and