U.S. Virgin Islands Subpoenas Elon Musk for Documents in Lawsuit Against JPMorgan Chase Over Jeffrey Epstein’s Sex Trafficking Activities
The U.S. Virgin Islands has issued a subpoena to Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, seeking documents in connection with the government’s lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase over the sex trafficking activities of Jeffrey Epstein, a former client of the bank. According to a court filing on Monday, the Virgin Islands’ attempt to serve the subpoena to Musk has been unsuccessful thus far. The filing suggests that there is suspicion that Epstein may have referred or attempted to refer Musk as a client to JPMorgan.
In the filing, the U.S. territory has requested Manhattan federal court Judge Jed Rakoff to allow them to serve Musk with the subpoena through Tesla’s registered agent. The subpoena demands that Musk provide any documents related to communications between him, JPMorgan, and Epstein. It also seeks all documents pertaining to Epstein’s involvement in human trafficking and his procurement of girls or women for consensual sex.
The lawsuit by the Virgin Islands accuses JPMorgan of enabling and benefiting from Epstein’s trafficking of young women to his private island in the territory for abusive purposes. JPMorgan has denied these claims, which align with similar allegations made in a separate ongoing civil lawsuit filed by a woman who claims to have been sexually abused by Epstein. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon is scheduled to be deposed for both lawsuits starting on May 26.
In a court filing on May 4, it was revealed that the Virgin Islands had also issued a similar subpoena for documents to Google co-founder Larry Page, but faced difficulties in locating him. Previously, subpoenas were issued to other notable individuals, including Sergey Brin (co-founder of Google), Michael Ovitz (former Disney executive), Thomas Pritzker (Hyatt Hotels executive chairman), and Mort Zuckerman (billionaire real estate investor).
The Virgin Islands stated in the filing that Elon Musk, as the CEO of Tesla and other companies, is a high-net-worth individual who Epstein may have referred or attempted to refer to JPMorgan. The government has hired an investigative firm to locate Musk’s address and has also reached out to one of his lawyers. The lawyer has waived the requirement of personal service in past federal cases, according to the filing. However, the government did not receive a response confirming or denying his authority to accept service on Musk’s behalf.
CNBC has reached out to Musk for comment. In the past, Epstein claimed to have advised Musk following an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission into Musk’s statements about taking Tesla private. However, Tesla vehemently denied this claim, stating that Epstein never provided any advice to Musk. Epstein had predicted that everyone at Tesla would deny talking to him or being his friend, according to an article about an interview with Epstein conducted by The New York Times writer James Stewart.
Jeffrey Epstein, a former acquaintance of Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, and Prince Andrew, was a customer of JPMorgan from 1998 to 2013. In 2008, he pleaded guilty to a state charge in Florida related to soliciting sex from an underage girl. Epstein died by suicide in a Manhattan jail in August 2019, a month after being arrested on child sex trafficking charges.
