© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Barclays CEO Jes Staley arrives at 10 Downing Street in London, Britain, January 11, 2018. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls/File Photo
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NEW YORK (Reuters) – Jes Staley, former head of private banking at JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:), wants a U.S. judge to throw out the bank’s lawsuit against him for hiding what he knew about Jeffrey Epstein from other lawsuits over the ties of JPMorgan with the late financier.
In a letter filed Thursday in Manhattan federal court, Staley also asked to delay the scheduled Oct. 23 trial until March 2024, saying the current “heavy” schedule gives him “grossly insufficient” time to defend himself against the JPMorgan claims.
“The stakes could hardly be higher for Mr. Staley,” his attorney Brendan Sullivan said in the letter. “Refuting these highly publicized and false accusations is of the utmost importance to him.”
JPMorgan did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Epstein had been a JPMorgan client from 2000 to 2013.
The largest US bank is being sued by the US Virgin Islands, where Epstein had a home, and by the financier’s accusers for allegedly aiding in his sexual abuse.
JPMorgan then sued Staley, who had been a friend of Epstein’s, seeking to have him cover his losses in both lawsuits and forfeit eight years of compensation.
Epstein was in a Manhattan jail awaiting trial for sex trafficking when he committed suicide at age 66 in August 2019.
