Jeffrey Epstein’s assistant reached out to a senior executive at JPMorgan Chase & Co. more than four years ago to help former Obama White House lawyer Kathy Ruemmler open an account before she joined Goldman Sachs Group Inc., where she is now general counsel, according to a court filing.
An email thread initiated by the financier’s office was revealed in a lawsuit by the US Virgin Islands that accuses JPMorgan of knowingly benefiting from Epstein’s sex crimes. The dialog was about six years after the bank fired Epstein as a client and six months before Epstein died in prison by suicide while awaiting trial.
Mary Erdoes, head of asset and wealth management at the bank, forwarded Epstein’s request to Stacey Friedman, the general counsel at JPMorgan.
“Do you know Kathy? Any reason we shouldn’t take her?” Erdoes wrote in the February 2019 email. “Odd that this is coming through JE...”
Friedman responded that she knew Ruemmler well, praised her a star litigator and thought she’d be a “great client.”
Epstein forged connections at JPMorgan that generated more than $8 million in revenue for its private banking investment business, according to documents in the lawsuit.
His relationship with the bank became controversial after his arrest for sex crimes. The US Virgin Islands, where he had a private retreat and brought some of his victims before his death in 2019, is seeking at least $190 million from JPMorgan. The territory accuses the company of putting the revenue it generated from Epstein’s business and connections ahead of acting on warning signs.
Erdoes fired Epstein as a client in 2013, after Jes Staley, his chief supporter, had left JPMorgan.
--With assistance from Ava Benny-Morrison.
