![JP Morgan Chase & Co. headquarters in New York](https://cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/BXQQXDJR3ZO5BCIKQR4SEQTLZA.jpg)
[1/2] A view of the exterior of JP Morgan Chase & Co. headquarters. in New York City, May 20, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Segar
NEW YORK, May 19 (Reuters) – A judge said on Friday he would decide by the end of the month whether to file a lawsuit from JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) against a former executive accused of running the bank to have ensnared financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Manhattan District Judge Jed Rakoff spoke after an hour-long hearing on whether America’s largest bank should indict Jes Staley, the former head of the private bank.
JPMorgan wants Staley to cover some or all of the damages it could face in lawsuits filed by Epstein and the U.S. Virgin Islands prosecutors over his ties to Epstein.
The lawsuits accuse the bank of contributing to Epstein’s sex trafficking business by keeping him as a client from 1998 to 2013, the last five years after he pleaded guilty to a Florida prostitution charge.
If Staley had “fulfilled his obligations, Epstein would not have been a client,” said Leonard Gail, a JPMorgan lawyer.
Staley, who later served as CEO of Barclays Plc (BARC.L), has expressed regret for befriending Epstein but denies knowing anything about his crimes.
He has accused JPMorgan of using him as a “public relations shield” for its own oversight failures, and that others at the bank knew about Epstein’s misconduct.
“They’re not purely passive,” Staley’s attorney Stephen Wohlgemuth said Friday.
The cases are scheduled for trial on October 23.
Rakoff has said JPMorgan could be held liable if Epstein’s prosecutors can prove that Staley knew firsthand that Epstein, who was known to associate with prominent politicians and business executives, ran a sex trafficking enterprise.
Epstein died in August 2019 in a Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial for sex trafficking. The New York City medical examiner called the death a suicide.
Report by Luc Cohen in New York; Edited by Daniel Wallis