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A federal US decide rejected requests to sever JP Morgan’s lawsuit accusing former government Jes Staley of concealing what he knew about Jeffrey Epstein from two associated lawsuits over the financial institution’s work for the convicted intercourse offender.
Monday’s choice by Choose Jed Rakoff in US district court docket in Manhattan is a defeat for Staley, in addition to for girls who declare Epstein sexually abused them and who’re additionally suing the most important American financial institution.
Epstein was a JP Morgan shopper from 2000 to 2013. The US Virgin Islands, the place he had a house, can be suing JP Morgan. A trial is scheduled for 23 October.
Staley, 66, who additionally spent six years as chief government of Barclays earlier than resigning in November 2021, stated the trial schedule left him too little time to defend towards JP Morgan’s “slanderous” accusations.
Epstein’s accusers, in the meantime, accused JP Morgan of suing Staley as a way to “harass and intimidate” them into revealing personal medical information and communications of their case.
However the decide referred to as Staley a “distinguished focus” of all three circumstances and famous that his Washington legislation agency Williams & Connolly calls itself as one of many world’s “premier” litigation companies.
“None of Staley’s whines remotely warrants both a severance or a change within the joint trial date,” Rakoff wrote.
The decide additionally stated Epstein’s accusers “can not have been blind” to their have to disclose delicate data.
A lawyer for Staley, Brendan Sullivan, didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
A lawyer for the accusers, Brad Edwards, stated in an e-mail: “The choice is in accord with the legislation. The survivors we symbolize are sturdy and won’t cower to bullying by banks, so we are going to proceed to show what’s a really sturdy case.”
The US Virgin Islands seeks unspecified damages in its lawsuit whereas the accusers are in search of probably billions of {dollars} in theirs.
JP Morgan sued Staley final month to have him cowl its losses in each lawsuits and forfeit eight years of compensation.
Staley has expressed remorse for his pleasant relationship with Epstein and denied understanding about his alleged crimes.
He has additionally been accused of swapping sexually suggestive messages with Epstein about younger girls and committing sexual assault himself. Staley denies wrongdoing.
Epstein died by suicide aged 66 in August 2019 in a Manhattan jail whereas awaiting trial for intercourse trafficking. He had beforehand pleaded responsible in a state court docket in Florida in 2008 of procuring a baby for prostitution and of soliciting a prostitute.
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