Electric car maker Tesla CEO Elon Musk meets with French Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire on the sidelines of the 6th edition of the “Choose France” summit at the Chateau de Versailles, outside Paris on May 15, 2023.
Ludovic Marin | Swimming Pool | Via Reuters
The United States Virgin Islands a summons issued Tesla CEO Elon Musk seeks documents for that government’s lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase about sex trafficking by the bank’s late longtime client, Jeffrey Epstein, a lawsuit revealed Monday.
That filing states that the Virgin Islands unsuccessfully attempted to sue Musk with the subpoena, which was issued on April 28 over allegations that Epstein “may have referred or attempted to refer” Musk as a client to JPMorgan.
The USVI asked Manhattan Federal Court Judge Jed Rakoff in the filing to allow the government to serve Musk with the subpoena for the documents with Tesla’s registered agent.
The US territory is suing JPMorgan for allegedly enabling and profiting from Epstein’s trafficking of young women to his private island in the Virgin Islands to be abused by him and others.
JPMorgan denies the government’s claims, which are reflected in a separate pending civil lawsuit in Manhattan federal court by a woman who says Epstein sexually assaulted her. Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan, will be impeached on May 26 for both lawsuits.
A May 4 lawsuit by the USVI found that the government had issued a similar subpoena for documents to Google co-founder Larry Page, and that the USVI was also having trouble finding Page.
And the territory has previously issued subpoenas to Page’s Google co-founder Sergey Brin, former Disney executive Michael Ovitz, Hyatt Hotels chairman Thomas Pritzker, and billionaire real estate investor Mort Zuckerman.
In Monday’s filing, the USVI said, “According to information and belief, Elon Musk — the CEO of Tesla, Inc., among other companies — is a high net worth person who may have referred or attempted to refer Epstein
to JPMorgan.”
The government said it hired a research firm to try to find an address for Musk, and also contacted one of his lawyers.
That attorney has waived the requirement that legal documents be personally served on him in previous federal cases, the filing said.
“The government contacted Mr. Musk’s counsel via email to ask if he would be authorized to accept service on Mr. Musk’s behalf in this matter, but received no response confirming or denying his authority.” , the filing said.
CNBC has reached out to request comment from Musk. In addition to being CEO of Tesla, Musk is head of SpaceX and owner of Twitter.
In 2018, Epstein shared The writer of the New York Times James Stewart that he advised Musk after the Securities and Exchange Commission opened an investigation into Musk’s comments about the company’s IPO.
A video still from the NBC archive of Donald Trump talking to Jeffrey Epstein at a party at Mar-A-Lago from 1992.
NBC
When The Times reached out to Tesla for comment, the company strongly denied that claim, saying, “It is false to say that Epstein ever advised Elon on anything.” Epstein had predicted to Stewart that “everyone at Tesla would deny talking to him or being his friend,” according to an article about their interview.
Epstein, a former friend of Donald Trump Bill Clinton and Britain’s Prince Andrew, was a client of the bank from 1998 to 2013. In 2008, he pleaded guilty to a Florida state felony charge of soliciting sex from an underage girl.
Epstein committed suicide in a Manhattan jail in August 2019, a month after being arrested on child trafficking charges.
– Additional coverage by CNBCs Lora Kolodny