The US Virgin Islands has issued a subpoena to Tesla CEO Elon Musk to obtain documents for that government’s lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase over sex trafficking by longtime bank customer Jeffrey Epstein, a court filing revealed Monday.
That filing said the Virgin Islands unsuccessfully attempted to service Musk with the subpoena, which was issued on April 28, over suspicions that Epstein “may have referred or attempted to refer” Musk as a client to JPMorgan.
U.S. Lands asked Manhattan federal court judge Jed Rakoff, in a filing, to allow it to serve Musk with a subpoena with Tesla’s registered agent.
This subpoena requires Musk to turn over any documents that show connections involving him, JPMorgan, and Epstein, as well as “all documents reflecting or relating to Epstein’s involvement in human trafficking and/or procurement of girls or women for consensual sex.”
The Virgin Islands is suing JP Morgan over allegations that Epstein enabled the smuggling of young women to his private island in the territory and profited from him and others.
JPMorgan denies the government’s allegations, which are reflected in a separate civil lawsuit pending in Manhattan federal court by a woman who says Epstein sexually assaulted her. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon is set to be fired in both lawsuits starting May 26.
A May 4 court filing from the Virgin Islands revealed that the government had issued a subpoena similar to documents for Google co-founder Larry Page, and that it, too, was having difficulty locating the page.
The district previously issued subpoenas to Page’s colleague at Google co-founder Sergey Brin, former Disney CEO Michael Ovitz, Hyatt Hotel Group CEO Thomas Pritzker and Mort Zuckerman, a billionaire real estate investor.
In a filing on Monday, the Virgin Islands said: “Based on information and belief, Elon Musk — the CEO of Tesla, Inc., among others — is a high-net-worth individual who Epstein may have referred or attempted to refer to JPMorgan.” In addition to being the CEO of Tesla, Musk is the chairman of SpaceX and the owner of Twitter.
The government said it has hired an investigation firm to try to locate Musk’s address, and has also contacted one of his attorneys.
This attorney waived in previous federal cases the requirement to be presented in person with legal documents, according to the filing.
“The government contacted Mr. Musk’s attorney by email to ask if he would be authorized to accept service on behalf of Mr. Musk in this matter, but has not received a response confirming or denying his authority,” the lawsuit states.
Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment by CNBC.
But on Monday night, Musk responded to a Twitter user, @unusual_whales, who posted this article on Twitter.
“This is stupid on so many levels,” Musk wrote in his response on Twitter. “1. Those cretins never advised me of anything at all. 2. The idea that I would ever need or listen to financial advice from an idiot hustler is absurd.”
3. JPM dumped Tesla ten years ago, Musk writes, despite Tesla’s global commercial banking business, which we then pulled out of. “I never forgave them.”
In 2018, Epstein told New York Times columnist James Stewart that he was advising Musk after the Securities and Exchange Commission opened an investigation into Musk’s comments about taking the company private.
When reached out to Tesla for comment by The Times, the company vehemently denied the claim, saying, “It would be wrong to say that Epstein advised Elon on anything.” Epstein predicted to Stewart that “everyone at Tesla would deny ever talking to him or being his friend,” according to an article about their interview.
Epstein, a former friend of Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and Britain’s Prince Andrew, was a client of the bank from 1998 until 2013. In 2008, he pleaded guilty to a Florida state charge of soliciting sex from an underage girl.
Epstein committed suicide in a Manhattan prison in August 2019, a month after he was arrested on charges of child trafficking for sexual purposes.
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