Government of the United States Virgin Islands v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., No. 122-cv-10904 (S.D.N.Y. 2022)/239-24.pdf

EXHIBIT 99 Case 1:22-cv-10904-JSR Document 239-24 Filed 07/25/23 Page 1 of 21 Stephen Cutler - Highly Confidential Golkow Litigation Services Page 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 239-24 Filed 07/25/23 Page 2 of 21 Stephen Cutler - Highly Confidential Golkow Litigation Services Page 150 1 you know that there was a federal 2 non-prosecution agreement, you just don't 3 know when you knew that? 4 A. I know at a certain point I 5 understood that there was a federal 6 non-pros agreement. I can't tell you 7 exactly when. And I can't tell you that 8 I knew precisely what the terms of it 9 were. 10 Q. But you knew at some point 11 while you were general counsel at 12 JPMorgan and Jeffrey Epstein was a client 13 of the bank; is that fair? 14 A. I believe I knew that there 15 was a non-pros agreement. 16 Q. Okay. You can put that 17 document away. 18 Do you recall, in 2008, 19 after Jeffrey Epstein pled guilty to the 20 child sex offenses, that private bank 21 wanted to exit Jeffrey Epstein as a 22 client of the bank? 23 A. I do not. 24 - - - Case 1:22-cv-10904-JSR Document 239-24 Filed 07/25/23 Page 3 of 21 Stephen Cutler - Highly Confidential Golkow Litigation Services Page 264 1 MR. GAIL: Objection. 2 THE WITNESS: I don't know 3 why you don't think it would make 4 any sense, but I could -- I could 5 conceive of -- if I had been 6 involved in approval in '08, I 7 could also conceive, in 2011, 8 having this view. 9 BY MS. LIU: 10 Q. What happened between 11 possibly your approving him in 2008 and 12 your having this view in 2011, 13 Mr. Cutler? 14 A. Well, among other things, I 15 think we would have seen the non-pros 16 agreement. We would have reviewed a lot 17 of press that arose, I want to say in the 18 2010, early 2011 period. We had some 19 direct experience with him in connection 20 with the claims that he was raising 21 against Bear Stearns. 22 And so I think whatever 23 judgment I had had in 2008, clearly by 24 this date in 2011, I did not believe that Case 1:22-cv-10904-JSR Document 239-24 Filed 07/25/23 Page 4 of 21 Stephen Cutler - Highly Confidential Golkow Litigation Services Page 265 1 Jeffrey Epstein should be a client of the 2 firm. 3 Q. The press that arose said he 4 was being investigated for child sex 5 trafficking and human trafficking, 6 correct? 7 A. I don't remember the 8 precise, but -- the precise parameters of 9 the press, but I remember there was a 10 series of articles about a new 11 investigation. There were articles that 12 I remember pointed that he was -- he had 13 resolved claims with -- with a very large 14 number of women. 15 And, yeah, so I remember 16 those being among the articles, you know, 17 that we saw in 2010 or '11. 18 Q. Who is Nina Shenker? 19 A. At this point, she was the 20 general counsel of the asset management 21 business. 22 Q. She was Mary Erdoes's 23 general counsel, correct? 24 A. I'd never put it that way, Case 1:22-cv-10904-JSR Document 239-24 Filed 07/25/23 Page 5 of 21 Stephen Cutler - Highly Confidential Golkow Litigation Services Page 268 1 I'll represent to you, and you can -- you 2 can check me on this, 7/21/11, when you 3 say, I would like to put it and him 4 behind us, not a person we should do 5 business with period, was a Thursday. 6 A. Okay. 7 Q. And the him, just so it's 8 perfectly clear for the record, is 9 Jeffrey Epstein, correct? 10 A. I believe that's right. 11 - - - 12 (Whereupon, Exhibit 13 Cutler-23, 14 JPM-SDNYLIT-00754982-984, 7/22/11 15 E-mail, was marked for 16 identification.) 17 - - - 18 BY MS. LIU: 19 Q. I'm showing you what's been 20 marked as Exhibit-23. 21 So you'll see the top e-mail 22 on Exhibit-23 is from Nina Shenker to 23 Mary Erdoes on 7/22/2011 -- 24 A. I see it. Case 1:22-cv-10904-JSR Document 239-24 Filed 07/25/23 Page 6 of 21 Stephen Cutler - Highly Confidential Golkow Litigation Services Page 269 1 Q. -- the next day, correct? 2 She writes, Imagine lots to 3 do upon your return to U.S. and for next 4 week. 5 Do you see that? 6 A. Yes. 7 Q. And then there's a redacted 8 portion. And then the next line says, 9 FYI, Steve, at conclusion of JE approval, 10 asked when we are off-boarding JE. I 11 reminded him that we have the other 12 matter outstanding. 13 Do you see that? 14 A. I do. 15 Q. What was the JE approval? 16 A. I don't know. I mean, I 17 could make an assumption that it related 18 to this lawsuit, but I don't know. 19 Q. So the day before you said 20 to Mary Erdoes, I want to put him behind 21 us? 22 A. Correct. 23 Q. Not a person we should do 24 business with? Case 1:22-cv-10904-JSR Document 239-24 Filed 07/25/23 Page 7 of 21 Stephen Cutler - Highly Confidential Golkow Litigation Services Page 270 1 A. Correct. 2 Q. Do you believe that Nina 3 Shenker is referring to an approval of 4 Jeffrey Epstein that predated July 21st, 5 2011? 6 MR. GAIL: Objection. 7 MR. EDELMAN: Objection to 8 form. 9 THE WITNESS: I'm sorry, an 10 approval of him as a client? 11 BY MS. LIU: 12 Q. Yes. 13 A. No. 14 Q. Okay. Let me understand. 15 What do you believe, FYI 16 Steve, at conclusion of JE approval, 17 asked when we are off-boarding JE? 18 A. I -- I don't think I would 19 have said when are we off-boarding him if 20 we were speaking about an approval of his 21 account. It just -- the two things in 22 conjunction don't make sense to me. 23 I would think, just based on 24 the juxtaposition of Exhibit-22 versus Case 1:22-cv-10904-JSR Document 239-24 Filed 07/25/23 Page 8 of 21 Stephen Cutler - Highly Confidential Golkow Litigation Services Page 271 1 Exhibit-23 that it's somehow the approval 2 of the settlement. 3 Q. I see. 4 Steve, at the conclusion of 5 the Jeffrey Epstein settlement approval? 6 A. I -- that makes more sense 7 to me. 8 Q. Okay. 9 A. I don't remember it. 10 Q. Okay. Fine. Just want to 11 try to understand what you think it 12 means. 13 So -- asked when we are 14 off-boarding Jeffrey Eps