The United States virgin islands issued a citation to tesla CEO Elon Musk seeking documents for that government’s lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase on sex trafficking for him banklong time late customer jeffrey epsteina court filing revealed Monday.
That filing said that the Virgin Islands has unsuccessfully tried to serve Musk with the citationwhich aired on April 28, due to suspicions that Epstein “may have referred or attempted to refer” Musk as a JPMorgan client.
The US territory asked Manhattan federal court judge Jed Rakoff to allow him to serve Musk with the subpoena with Tesla’s registered agent.
That subpoena requires Musk to turn over any documents showing a communication involving him, JPMorgan, and Epstein, as well as «all documents reflecting or relating to Epstein’s involvement in human trafficking and/or his acquisition of girls.» or women for consensual sex.”
The Virgin Islands is suing JPMorgan for allegedly allowing and profiting from the trafficking of young Epstein women to his private island in the territory to be abused by him and others.
JPMorgan denies the government’s claims, which are reflected in a separate civil lawsuit pending in Manhattan federal court by a woman who says Epstein sexually abused her. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon is due to be ousted over both lawsuits effective May 26.
A May 4 court filing from the Virgin Islands revealed that the government had issued a similar subpoena for documents to Google co-founder Larry Page and was also having difficulty locating Page.
And the territory previously issued subpoenas to Page’s Google co-founder. sergey brinformer Disney executive Michael Ovitz, Hyatt Hotels CEO Thomas Pritzker and Mort Zuckerman, the billionaire real estate investor.
In Monday’s filing, the Virgin Islands said: «Based on information and belief, Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, Inc., among other companies, is a high net worth individual whom Epstein may have referred or attempted to refer to JPMorgan. ” In addition to being CEO of Tesla, Musk is a director of SpaceX and owner of Twitter.
The government said it had hired an investigative firm to try to locate an address for Musk and also contacted one of his lawyers.
That attorney in previous federal cases has waived the requirement that legal documents be personally served on him, according to the filing.
«The government contacted Mr. Musk’s attorney by email to ask if he would be authorized to accept service on Mr. Musk’s behalf in this matter, but did not receive a response confirming or denying his authority,» it says. The document.
Musk did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment.
But on Monday night, Musk responded to a Twitter user, @unusual_whales, who had tweeted this article.
“This is idiocy on so many levels,” Musk wrote in his Twitter response. «1. That cretin never gave me any advice at all. 2. The notion that he would need or listen to financial advice from a dumb crook is absurd.”
«3. JPM let Tesla down ten years ago, despite having Tesla’s global commercial banking business, which we later retired,» Musk wrote. «I have never forgiven them.»
In 2018, Epstein said New York Times writer James Stewart who had been advising Musk after the Securities and Exchange Commission opened an investigation into Musk’s comments about taking the company private.
When approached by The Times for comment, the company strongly denied that claim, saying, «It is incorrect to say that Epstein ever advised Elon on anything.» Epstein had predicted to Stewart that «everyone at Tesla would deny ever talking to him or being friends with him,» according to an article about his interview.
A former friend of Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and Britain’s Prince Andrew, Epstein was a client of the bank from 1998 to 2013. In 2008, he pleaded guilty to a Florida state charge of soliciting an underage girl for sex.
Epstein committed suicide in a Manhattan jail in August 2019, a month after he was arrested on child sex trafficking charges.
Lora Kolodni, CNBC contributed.