Government of the United States Virgin Islands v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., No. 122-cv-10904 (S.D.N.Y. 2022)/263-26.pdf

EXHIBIT 79 FILED UNDER SEAL Case 1:22-cv-10904-JSR Document 263-26 Filed 08/07/23 Page 1 of 10 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 263-26 Filed 08/07/23 Page 2 of 10 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 263-26 Filed 08/07/23 Page 3 of 10 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 263-26 Filed 08/07/23 Page 4 of 10 Stephen Cutler - Highly Confidential Golkow Litigation ServicesPage 272 1 consistent, yes. 2 BY MS. LIU: 3 Q. And it's also consistent 4 that JPMorgan retained Jeffrey Epstein as 5 a client to deal with the Bear Stearns 6 litigation that Jeffrey Epstein had, 7 correct? 8 A. I don't know that. 9 Q. Because then she writes, I 10 reminded him that we have the other 11 matter outstanding. 12 Do you see that? 13 A. I do. 14 Q. So we had the one, it's been 15 approved, settlement is done. But Steve, 16 from Nina, we've got that other 17 litigation with Jeffrey Epstein. 18 Do you recall that? 19 A. I don't. 20 Q. Do you recall the Zwirn 21 Highbridge Dubin litigation? 22 A. I've now seen documents that 23 remind me there was -- there was another 24 claim that Epstein had. Case 1:22-cv-10904-JSR Document 263-26 Filed 08/07/23 Page 5 of 10 Stephen Cutler - Highly Confidential Golkow Litigation ServicesPage 274 1 Epstein's suggestion, to make this 2 elaborate presentation about the world's 3 largest donor-advised fund, correct? 4 A. If you're asking me if I 5 think we kept Mr. Epstein as a client 6 because of some dealings with the Gates 7 Foundation, I don't think so. But -- I'm 8 sure we'll get to that, but I don't think 9 so. 10 Q. So you have no reason to 11 disagree that the other matter 12 outstanding was the Highbridge litigation 13 by Jeffrey Epstein, correct? 14 A. I just don't know what -- 15 what Ms. Shenker was talking about in 16 this e-mail to Ms. Erdoes. 17 Q. And what was the Jeffrey 18 Epstein Highbridge litigation that was 19 still outstanding at this time that you 20 were not off-boarding Jeffrey Epstein? 21 MR. GAIL: Objection. 22 THE WITNESS: I don't -- I 23 don't remember what the -- that 24 litigation, again, assuming that Case 1:22-cv-10904-JSR Document 263-26 Filed 08/07/23 Page 6 of 10 Stephen Cutler - Highly Confidential Golkow Litigation ServicesPage 275 1 it was litigation, was about. 2 I also don't know that we 3 were not off-boarding Mr. Epstein 4 because of that litigation or 5 litigation claim. 6 BY MS. LIU: 7 Q. So why were you retaining 8 Jeffrey Epstein at this time? 9 MR. GAIL: Objection. 10 THE WITNESS: Why was 11 JPMorgan? I don't know all the 12 reasons. 13 BY MS. LIU: 14 Q. Do you know any of the 15 reasons, Mr. Cutler? 16 A. Well, I know that at least 17 Mr. Staley felt very strongly that 18 Mr. Epstein had paid his debt to society, 19 had served his time, and was someone that 20 a lot of other people trusted. I think 21 Mr. Staley didn't agree with the notion 22 that we shouldn't have him as a client. 23 Q. But, yet, Nina Shenker is 24 e-mailing Mary Erdoes. Case 1:22-cv-10904-JSR Document 263-26 Filed 08/07/23 Page 7 of 10 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 263-26 Filed 08/07/23 Page 8 of 10 Stephen Cutler - Highly Confidential Golkow Litigation ServicesPage 351 1 Schwartz. 2 Q. And do you recall what he 3 said to you or what you -- what you 4 remember about any conversations that 5 happened between someone at JPMorgan and 6 Ken Starr related to Jeffrey Epstein? 7 A. My best recollection is we 8 were trying to ascertain whether there 9 was, in fact, an ongoing investigation, 10 that is, an investigation of, you know, 11 current conduct, or call it 12 post-conviction conduct. 13