Kathy Ruemmler, former White Home Counsel, seems on “Meet the Press” in Washington, D.C., June 29, 2014.
William B. Plowman | NBCUniversal | Getty Photographs
Intercourse predator Jeffrey Epstein was concerned in establishing a consumer relationship between Obama White Home counsel Kathryn Ruemmler and JPMorgan Chase in February 2019, 4 months earlier than he was arrested on federal little one intercourse trafficking prices, a bombshell court docket submitting revealed Tuesday.
Ruemmler, who’s now basic counsel for Goldman Sachs, was touted by Epstein’s private assistant to JPMorgan as a great buyer, the submitting reveals.
The suggestion that JPMorgan take Ruemmler on as a consumer — which the financial institution warmly embraced — got here virtually six years after JPMorgan mentioned it had successfully fired Epstein as a consumer after inside controls repeatedly raised crimson flags about him.
And it got here 5 months earlier than Epstein killed himself in August 2019 in a Manhattan federal jail, the place he was being held with out bail pending trial.
Ruemmler declined to remark by means of a Goldman Sachs spokesman.
CNBC individually emailed her to ask how she knew Epstein, and what data she had of his historical past of being convicted in 2008 of a intercourse crime in Florida.
The Manhattan federal court docket submitting detailing her connection to Epstein was filed by the federal government of the U.S. Virgin Islands, which is suing JPMorgan.
The American territory alleges that JPMorgan enabled and benefitted from Epstein’s intercourse trafficking of younger girls to the Virgin Islands, the place he had a house, in the course of the years he maintained accounts on the financial institution, from 1998 by means of 2013., claiming the financial institution enabled and benefited from intercourse trafficking of younger girls by Epstein.
JPMorgan denies any wrongdoing within the case, the place the territory is in search of at the very least $190 million in damages.
The financial institution final month agreed to settle an identical lawsuit in the identical court docket by an Epstein accuser, paying $290 million to her and different Epstein victims.
The case is scheduled to go to trial in late October.
“Even after his exit proper up till his arrest in 2019, JPMorgan continued to work with Epstein,” the Virgin Islands mentioned in its submitting.
The submitting says that JPMorgan admits “Epstein was concerned within the institution of a buyer relationship with Kathryn Ruemmler,” who was the longest-serving White Home basic counsel beneath former President Barack Obama
The submitting says that in February 2019, Epstein’s assistant Leslie Groff provided to introduce Mary Erdoes, a prime JPMorgan government, to Ruemmler, as a result of she wished to open an account with JPMorgan and Epstein thought the 2 of them “would bond.”
“Erdoes escalated the referral to Stacey Friedman, JPMorgan’s Common Counsel, who
responded ‘she is a rock star litigator at Latham. . . . I might assume she can be an amazing consumer,’ ” the Virgin Island mentioned in its submitting.
Ruemmler on the time labored on the regulation agency Latham & Watkins.
In 2020 she joined Goldman Sachs as a companion, and now’s Goldman’s chief authorized officer and basic counsel.
The submitting additionally mentioned that Epstein at one time referred as a possible JPMorgan consumer Nicholas Ribis, a gaming advisor who for many years ran casinos for former President Donald Trump.
Ribis didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
JPMorgan claims in court docket filings that the Virgin Islands was itself “complicit within the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein,” arguing that he gave high-ranking authorities officers there cash, recommendation and favors in change for wanting the opposite means when he trafficked younger girls.
JPMorgan additionally argues that its former government Jes Staley, who was pals with Epstein when he was a consumer of the financial institution, is chargeable for any civil legal responsibility of the financial institution on account of its enterprise relationship with the intercourse offender.
On Tuesday, newly unsealed court docket filings by the financial institution present that Epstein was requested by former U.S. Virgin Islands Gov. John de Jongh Jr. for a mortgage of $215,000 after de Jongh was arrested on embezzlement prices that had been later dismissed.
Epstein’s firm additionally paid de Jongh’s spouse Cecile a $300,000 lump sum severance fee after Epstein killed himself in a federal jail whereas awaiting trial on little one intercourse trafficking prices in August 2019, JPMorgan’s paperwork say. Cecile had labored for Epstein at his Southern Belief Firm.
The paperwork additionally say that one other Epstein worker who labored for him within the Virgin Islands was granted a U.S. Customs and Border Safety safety seal, which allowed that employee to “escort passengers by means of” Customs and Border screening areas.
The financial institution in different court docket filings has mentioned that Epstein paid for the college tuitions of the youngsters of John and Cecile de Jongh, and that Cecile had made efforts to acquire pupil visas and a piece license for younger girls related to Epstein.
A spokesman for the Virgin Islands’ Lawyer Common’s Workplace instructed CNBC that Epstein’s mortgage to former Gov. de Jongh occurred after he left workplace in 2015. The fees in opposition to de Jongh had been dropped in early 2016 by the Virgin Islands Division of Justice after he agreed to a separate financial settlement.
CNBC has reached out to remark from John de Jongh by way of an asset administration firm the place he’s a director.
The Virgin Islands spokesman additionally mentioned that “it was the federal authorities and never the Virgin Islands authorities that granted the ‘U.S. Customs and Border Safety Safety Seal.’ “
The Virgin Islands has mentioned that JPMorgan’s management stored Epstein as a consumer for years regardless of a number of warnings about him being raised internally on the financial institution, which included funds to younger girls, and a 2008 intercourse crime conviction in Florida which led to a jail time period.
In its new court docket submitting on Tuesday, the Virgin Islands cited a July 2011 e-mail between Epstein and Erdoes, after JPMorgan’s fast response group determined that Epstein must be offboarded as a consumer, and after JPMorgan’s basic counsel instructed Erdoes that Epstein was “not an individual we must always do enterprise with — interval.”
Erdoes and Epstein emailed after he and the financial institution agreed to settle his lawsuit in opposition to JPMorgan associated to cash he mentioned he was owed by Bear Sterns, the funding financial institution taken over by JPMorgan.
“On July 26, 2011, Epstein wrote to Erdoes, ‘lets [sic] transfer on , [sic] and make some actual cash,’ ” the submitting mentioned.
“Erdoes responded, ‘Onwards and upwards, on so many fronts,’ ” the submitting mentioned.
Epstein was not severed as a JPMorgan consumer for an additional two years.
The brand new Virgin Islands submitting mentioned that Staley, in his deposition for the lawsuit, disclosed the names of individuals and firms that Epstein had referred to the financial institution as potential shoppers. An unsealed portion of Staley’s deposition was made public Tuesday.
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Among the many high-powered names listed within the court docket submitting are Google co-founder Sergey Brin, the Sultan of Dubai, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, former Microsoft CEO Invoice Gates, former Treasury Division Secretary Larry Summers, and tv journalist Katie Couric.
Staley, who had been head of the financial institution’s asset and wealth administration division, testified that he met all these folks at Epstein’s townhouse on the Higher East Facet of Manhattan.
The deposition additionally reveals that Staley mentioned he had spoken to JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon in 2006 when Epstein was arrested on Florida state prices of procuring a minor for prostitution, and solicitation of a prostitute.
JPMorgan has denied that declare. “Staley admits that in 2006 Jamie Dimon communicated with him concerning Epstein’s arrest,” the Virgin Islands mentioned within the court docket submitting.
“Staley additionally testified that on or about July 26, 2006, he spoke to Dimon about Epstein’s indictment as a result of Dimon was his boss and the indictment of Epstein, a consumer of the financial institution, ‘was a really public occasion.’ “
Elsewhere within the deposition, Staley answered questions on going to see Epstein after an article was revealed in 2006 that mentioned, “Jeffrey Epstein craved massive properties, elite pals – and, investigators say, underage women.”
The article additionally acknowledged that two of “Epstein’s former staff instructed investigators that younger wanting women confirmed as much as carry out massages two or 3 times a day when Epstein was on the town.”
The Virgin Islands submitting mentioned, “On July 25, 2006, Staley met with Epstein in particular person at Epstein’s dwelling. In that go to, Epstein admitted to the alleged “conduct of partaking in intercourse for cash with younger girls”—solely denying the ‘ages.’ “
Staley afterward wrote Erdoes.
“I went and noticed him final evening. I’ve by no means seen him so shaken. He additionally adamantly denies the ages,” Staley wrote Erdoes, the submitting notes.
In his deposition, Staley was requested: “The conduct that he was being accused of, he was admitting that he did it. He was simply denying that he knew the ages of the victims, proper?”
Staley replied, “Appropriate.”
“And also you had been reporting that again to the financial institution, that what was being denied is the ages, proper?,” a lawyer for the Virgin Islands requested.
Staley answered, “Proper.”
He then conceded that the financial institution knew that Epstein had admitted to partaking in intercourse for cash with younger girls, whereas denying they had been underage.
The lawyer then requested, “And so when the financial institution is receiving that data, they now know what you already know, which is, that is the kind of conduct that our consumer is partaking in, and the one dispute that he has concerning the allegations are the ages of the victims, proper?”
Staley replied, “That is right.”