Government of the United States Virgin Islands v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., No. 122-cv-10904 (S.D.N.Y. 2022)/326-142.pdf

EXHIBIT 142 Case 1:22-cv-10904-JSR Document 326-142 Filed 09/08/23 Page 1 of 17 Stephen Cutler - Highly Confidential Golkow Litigation ServicesPage 1 1 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK 2 - - - 3 GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED : Case Number: STATES VIRGIN ISLANDS : 1:22-cv- 4 Plaintiff, : 10904-JSR v. : 5 JPMORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A. : Defendant/Third-Party : 6 Plaintiff. : _________________________________________ 7 JPMORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A. : Third-Party Plaintiff, : 8 v. : JAMES EDWARD STALEY : 9 Third-Party Defendant. : 10 - - - 11 MAY 24, 2023 HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL 12 - - - 13 Videotaped deposition of 14 STEPHEN CUTLER, taken pursuant to notice, 15 was held at the law offices of Boies 16 Schiller Flexner LLP, 55 Hudson Yards, 17 New York, New York, commencing at 18 9:40 a.m., on the above date, before 19 Amanda Dee Maslynsky-Miller, a Certified 20 Realtime Reporter and Notary Public in 21 and for the State of New York. 22 - - - GOLKOW LITIGATION SERVICES, INC. 23 877.370.3377 ph| 917.591.5672 fax deps@golkow.com 24 Case 1:22-cv-10904-JSR Document 326-142 Filed 09/08/23 Page 2 of 17 Stephen Cutler - Highly Confidential Golkow Litigation ServicesPage 209 1 2 3 4 5 6 BY MS. LIU: 7 Q. But you do remember and you 8 reviewed documents that reminded you, or 9 refreshed your recollection, Mr. Cutler, 10 correct, that on multiple occasions, as 11 the top lawyer at the company, you said 12 to business, I do not want this person, 13 Jeffrey Epstein, as a client of the bank, 14 correct? 15 A. I know that I said that in 16 2011. I do. 17 Q. But he remained a client of 18 the bank until August of 2013, correct? 19 A. Or thereabouts, yes. 20 Q. Who overruled you? 21 MR. GAIL: Objection. 22 BY MS. LIU: 23 Q. Mr. Cutler -- 24 A. I don't know if it was a Case 1:22-cv-10904-JSR Document 326-142 Filed 09/08/23 Page 3 of 17 Stephen Cutler - Highly Confidential Golkow Litigation ServicesPage 210 1 matter of being overruled, but I believe 2 that Mr. Staley and -- and others in the 3 business decided that we should retain 4 Mr. Epstein as a client, notwithstanding 5 my concerns that his continuing to have 6 an account at JPMorgan created a 7 reputational risk for the firm. 8 Q. And who are the others that 9 you mentioned? 10 A. Well, I don't think that an 11 account for a private bank customer gets 12 retained unless the private bank wants to 13 retain the account and the head of asset 14 management, to whom the private bank 15 reports, wants to retain that account. 16 And then I know in this case 17 Mr. Staley remained involved, given that 18 he was a primary relationship with the 19 account. 20 Q. The head of asset management 21 at the time was Mary Erdoes, correct? 22 A. Correct. Sorry, in 2011, 23 we're talking about, yeah. 24 MS. LIU: It's 1 o'clock. Case 1:22-cv-10904-JSR Document 326-142 Filed 09/08/23 Page 4 of 17 Stephen Cutler - Highly Confidential Golkow Litigation ServicesPage 299 1 You wrote that, correct? 2 A. Yes. 3 Q. Why did you write "it's 4 another to be paying him"? What did you 5 mean by that? 6 A. I'll reiterate what I said 7 before. I think that, essentially, would 8 make Mr. Epstein our business partner, 9 and I didn't think, given the 10 reputational issues, that JPMorgan ought 11 to be business partners with Mr. Epstein. 12 Q. Do you recall that that 13 Gates Foundation project that Mary 14 Erdoes, Jes Staley and with which you 15 were at least partially involved with 16 Jeffrey Epstein, ultimately didn't go 17 through? 18 A. Again, that's my 19 recollection, that we did not do -- 20 JPMorgan did not do a Gates Foundation 21 project. 22 - - - 23 (Whereupon, Exhibit 24 Cutler-26, JPM-SDNYLIT-00136260, Case 1:22-cv-10904-JSR Document 326-142 Filed 09/08/23 Page 5 of 17 Stephen Cutler - Highly Confidential Golkow Litigation ServicesPage 312 1 Jeffrey Epstein walking the halls or in 2 the elevator at JPMorgan? 3 A. I don't remember doing that 4 or those precautions having been taken. 5 Q. Do you know if your 6 secretary or assistant would recall 7 seeing Jeffrey Epstein or greeting 8 Jeffrey Epstein during that meeting? 9 A. I have no idea. 10 Q. Do you recall that you had a 11 meeting scheduled -- a next meeting 12 scheduled with Jeffrey Epstein a month 13 later? 14 A. So I -- I remember two 15 communications with Epstein. 16 Q. Okay. 17 A. So two -- two meetings. I 18 don't remember whether the second, so the 19 one after this one, I don't remember 20 whether it was an actual in-person 21 meeting or not. 22 I've now seen the calendar 23 entry suggesting that it was going to be 24 a meeting. I just don't remember if, in Case 1:22-cv-10904-JSR Document 326-142 Filed 09/08/23 Page 6 of 17 Stephen Cutler - Highly Confidential Golkow Litigation ServicesPage 313 1 fact, it was a meeting or there was a 2 call. I do remember having one, and then 3 there was going to be a second. 4 Q. Okay. So you had the first 5 meeting, he says, I'm a good guy, don't 6 hate me, Prince Andrew, Bill Gates, Glenn 7 Dubin -- 8 A. I don't remember -- 9 Q. -- he dropped a bunch of 10 names -- 11 A. I don't remember which names 12 he mentioned, but he mentioned a lot of 13 names of a lot of people that he 14 considered his friends and confidants. 15 That -- that much I remember. I just 16 don't remember which ones. 17 Q. And were you persuaded by 18 Jeffrey Epstein at this meeting? 19 A. No. I do remember 20 thinking -- or I do remember telling him, 21 I'm going to think about it. 22 And I remember thinking at 23 the time, he is smooth. He is -- you 24 know, he can be persuasive. And now, you Case 1:22-cv-10904-JSR Document 326-142 Filed 09/08/23 Page 7 of 17 Stephen Cutler - Highly Confidential Golkow Litigation ServicesPage 314 1 know, with the benefit of 20/20 2 hindsight, I can see that he managed to 3 charm a lot of people along the way. 4 So I do remember, at the 5 conclusion of the meeting, thinking, 6 okay, I'm going to think about this some. 7 Q. Okay. 8 A. But it didn't -- he didn't 9 change my mind. And I -- I think I must 10 have communicated, all right, I'm going 11 to think about it. 12 Q. And when do you think, 13 relative to that meeting, you arranged to 14 have a second meeting with him? 15 A. I only know this from having 16 looked at a couple of the documents. I 17 mean, I think it turned out to be six 18 weeks later. 19 Q. Okay. So you told him, I'm 20 going to think about it. 21 Do you recall if in between 22 those two meetings you had any 23 conversation with Mary Erdoes about your 24 meeting? Case 1:22-cv-10904-JSR Document 326-142 Filed 09/08/23 Page 8 of 17 Stephen Cutler - Highly Confidential Golkow Litigation ServicesPage 315 1 A. I don't remember doing that. 2 Q. Do you remember if you had 3 any conversation with Jes Staley about 4 your meeting? 5 A. I don't remember doing that 6 either. It is possible that I told him, 7 I met with him, I'm going to -- I'm going 8 to think about it, I'm going to meet with 9 him again. I just don't -- I just don't 10 remember. 11 Q. Do you recall if