FirstFT: Pressure grows on JPMorgan over Epstein links

JPMorgan Chase came under renewed pressure yesterday to release communications from chief executive Jamie Dimon in litigation accusing the bank of keeping the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein as a customer despite numerous red flags.

Lawyers involved in two separate court cases — one brought by an alleged victim of Epstein and the other by the US Virgin Islands, where Epstein had a home — respectively urged a New York judge to compel the release of Dimon’s communications prior to 2006, and for the period from 2014 to 2019.

Epstein, who pleaded guilty to state prostitution offences in Florida in 2008 and was charged by federal prosecutors in New York in 2019 with trafficking and sexually abusing dozens of girls, banked with JPMorgan from 1998 to 2013.

Jes Staley, former chief executive of Barclays, was his private banker at the Wall Street bank. Dimon became JPMorgan chief executive on January 1 2006 and chair one year later.

The US Virgin Islands alleged Dimon “was personally involved both in decisions to retain Epstein’s accounts in the face of acknowledged high-risk activity . . . and in meetings and review related to Epstein’s referrals of prominent and high-wealth potential clients”.

JPMorgan said yesterday: “We have found no evidence of, nor does [Dimon] recall, such a review.” It has previously characterised both lawsuits as “meritless”.

Dimon was asked about the Epstein case in a television interview this week but said he could not discuss specific litigation.

Staley, who is not a defendant in the Virgin Islands lawsuit, has consistently denied knowledge of Epstein’s sexual abuse.

Yesterday’s request for information is the latest development in the legal case against JPMorgan. Last week unredacted excerpts from 1,200 emails exchanged between Staley and Epstein from 2008 to 2012 were released.

• Opinion: In light of newly public allegations about Epstein and Staley, JPMorgan and Barclays need to answer the question: when does giving someone the benefit of the doubt cross the line into sticking your head in the sand, says Brooke Masters.

Five more stories in the news

1. Exclusive: US makes ‘no apologies’ for prioritising American jobs The US will make “no apologies” for prioritising American jobs in its bid to lead the global clean energy contest, the White House official responsible for the $369bn green funding drive has said.

2. FTX founder hit with further criminal charges US prosecutors have added to their criminal charges against Sam Bankman-Fried. In a 39-page document released yesterday, prosecutors accused the FTX founder of posting “a series of false and misleading tweets” regarding the cryptocurrency exchange’s balance sheet in November and of making tens of millions of dollars to the campaigns of politicians in the US “in the names of others” to avoid contribution rules.

3. US taps ex-Mastercard chief to lead World Bank US president Joe Biden has tapped former Mastercard chief executive Ajay Banga to lead the World Bank, a week after sitting president David Malpass abruptly resigned. The nomination of Banga, who once described himself as a “totally made in India guy”, may help win over developing nations that are uneasy about the bank’s shift in focus from poverty to climate change.

4. Next Bank of Japan head calls for ‘creative’ policy The Bank of Japan should be “creative” with its policy in the face of mounting market pressure to pivot from decades of an ultra-loose monetary stance, its expected next governor Kazuo Ueda told parliament today. The 71-year-old economist added that the central bank would embark on interest rate normalisation if it looked able to achieve and sustain its 2 per cent inflation target.

5. China calls for ceasefire in Ukraine China has called for a ceasefire in Ukraine and a return to negotiations on the anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion. The Chinese foreign ministry today released a 12-point plan for a “political settlement” to the war, though many of the measures reiterated Beijing’s standard talking points on the conflict.

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The day ahead

Ukraine war Today marks a year since Russia launched its full-scale invasion. Follow our special live blog for updates throughout the day, and join FT correspondents on Twitter Spaces at 1pm GMT to discuss how long Moscow can keep waging war on Kyiv.

Monetary policy Federal Reserve governor Philip Jefferson and Cleveland Fed president Loretta Mester will speak about managing disinflation at the Chicago Booth’s Initiative on Global Markets US Monetary Policy Forum in New York. Fed governor Christopher Waller and Boston Fed president Susan Collins will also appear at the forum.

Economic data The US commerce department will release the latest data on the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation metric and the University of Michigan will release the final reading for its February consumer sentiment index. In Mexico, economists expect the economy to have grown by 0.4 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2022 and an annualised rate of 3.5 per cent.

What else we’re reading

A historic telegram’s lessons on recalcitrant Russia On February 22 1946, George Kennan, a US diplomat in Moscow, sent a 5,000-word telegram to secretary of state James Byrnes. It became known as the “long telegram” and would form the basis of America’s policy towards the Soviet Union for nearly half a century. Seventy-seven years on, it offers lessons on living with Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

Consultants start cutting jobs as boom ends McKinsey will cut up to 2,000 and KPMG nearly 700 jobs in the first concrete sign that a pandemic boom in spending on consultants might be over. Soaring costs, the end of near-free borrowing for clients and a slump in deal activity have led to a more difficult outlook for parts of the big consultancies’ businesses.

US obsession with big cars has fatal consequences In 2021, 43,000 people died on US roads, the highest mortality rate in the developed world. A fifth of these deaths could be averted if rates of speeding and seatbelt-wearing matched peer countries, writes John Burn-Murdoch.

Anime and ‘The Last of Us’ are transforming Sony For long-term Sony watchers, the television series The Last of Us symbolises the culmination of a decade-long metamorphosis at the company. The transformation, which one analyst described as “remarkable”, has steadily converted Japan’s best-known consumer electronics brand into a less well-understood blend of specialist-hardware maker and international media giant.

Lockdowns are over. WFH isn’t. Why? Nearly three years after Italy introduced the first nationwide lockdown of the pandemic, much of the world remains in the grip of what economists Jose Maria Barrero, Nicholas Bloom and Steven Davis have called “Long Social Distancing”. The shift has several elements behind it, writes Tim Harford.

Take a break from the news

Thomas H Lee, the financier who led some of the private equity industry’s most successful deals during the 1980s and 1990s, has died at the age of 78.