JP Morgan Chase is no stranger to being associated with criminal activity. The organization was fined billions of dollars following the 2008 collapse and recession. The massive multiyear investigations spanned across virtually all government agencies.
In the summer of 2022, the former executive in charge of Global Precious Metals Trading was sent to prison after being convicted along with a slew of others for participating in price fixing and manipulating metals prices for nearly a decade.
Late last year, Christopher Jordan, a trader from Credit Suisse who had previously worked at the PM trading desk, was found guilty of silver price manipulation after an eight-day trial.
JPMorgan agreed in 2020 to pay more than $920 million and admitted to wrongdoing to settle with the Justice Department and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission over its traders’ conduct. At the time, the largest fine in banking history.
In December, the USVI filed a lawsuit claiming that JP Morgan Chase enabled the Epstein criminal enterprise by knowingly facilitating the disgraced financier’s payments to victims.
The lawsuit references an investigation by the DOJ that revealed that “JP Morgan knowingly, negligently, and unlawfully provided and pulled the levers… and was indispensable to the operation and concealment of the Epstein trafficking enterprise.”
JP Morgan has denied involvement and according to the NY Times has been fighting efforts to have Jamie Dimon disposed in other lawsuits related to the scandal.
In an attempt to distance itself from further entanglements with the scandal, JP Morgan has gone on an offensive tack and launched a lawsuit against former long-time executive Jes Staley over his ties to Epstein.
Claims from JP Morgan in court filings assert that Staley “affirmatively misrepresented the true facts of his and Epstein’s personal interactions and activities,” and “repeatedly provided misleading information” about Mr. Epstein to bank officials.
The lawsuit seeks to claw back Staley’s compensation from at least 2006 to 2013 totaling around $80 million and to distance the bank from liability related to the scandal. The claims in the suit includes references that suggest the exec may have had far more familiarity with Epstein’s activities than previously known.
News of the new lawsuit follows reports that courts are planning to unseal documents in other related Epstein cases that will name as many as 167 individuals closely associated with Epstein.
JP Morgan Chase is the world’s most dominant bullion bank with operations that span all facets of the industry from trading futures with hedge funds to transporting physical bullion around the world. They are one of the custodians for the ETF gold trust SPDR.
In January, Chase announced that they were evaluating getting into the settlement of precious metals trades in Zurich, a business historically dominated by UBS Group AG and the failing Credit Suisse Group AG.
