Electric car maker Tesla CEO Elon Musk meets with French Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire on the sidelines of the 6th annual “Choose France” summit at the Chateau de Versailles outside Paris on May 15, 2023.
Ludovic Marin | Pool | Via Reuters
United States Virgin Islands issued by a summons on Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk look for documents to sue this government JPMorgan Chase over sex trafficking according to flasklate long time customer Jeffrey Epsteina court filing revealed Monday.
That filing says the Virgin Islands tried unsuccessfully to serve Musk summonswhich was released on April 28 over suspicions that Epstein “may have referred or attempted to refer” Musk as a client to JPMorgan.
The US territory asked Manhattan Federal Court Judge Jed Rakoff in a filing to allow it to serve Musk with a subpoena at Tesla’s registered agent.
The subpoena requires Musk to turn over any documents that show communications involving him, JPMorgan and Epstein, as well as “any documents reflecting or relating to Epstein’s involvement in human trafficking and/or his solicitation of girls or women for consensual sex.”
The Virgin Islands is suing JPMorgan for allegedly enabling and profiting from Epstein’s trafficking of young women to his private island in the territory for him and others to abuse.
JPMorgan disputes the government’s claims, which are echoed in a separate civil lawsuit pending in Manhattan federal court by a woman who claims Epstein sexually abused her. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon is set to be deposed for both lawsuits starting on May 26.
A May 4 court filing from the Virgin Islands revealed that the government had issued a similar document subpoena to Google co-founder Larry Page and that it also had difficulty locating Page.
And the territory has previously issued a subpoena to Page’s Google co-founder Sergey Brinex Disney CEO Michael Ovitz, Hyatt hotels executive chairman Thomas Pritzker and Mort Zuckerman, a 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 others — is a high net worth individual that Epstein may have bequeathed or attempted to bequeath to JPMorgan.” ” In addition to being the CEO of Tesla, Musk is the head of SpaceX and the owner of Twitter.
The government said it had hired an investigative firm to try to find an address from Musk and also contacted one of his lawyers.
That lawyer has waived the requirement to be personally served with legal documents in past federal cases, according to the filing.
“The government contacted Mr. Musk’s attorney via email to inquire whether he would be authorized to accept service on Mr. Musk’s behalf in this matter, but has not received a response confirming or denying his authority,” the filing said.
Musk did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
But on Monday night, Musk responded to the Twitter user @unusual_whales who tweeted the article.
“This is idiotic on so many levels,” Musk wrote in his Twitter response. “1. The jerk never gave me any advice. 2. The idea that I would need or listen to financial advice from a dumb con artist is absurd.”
“3. JPM failed Tesla 10 years ago despite having Tesla’s global commercial banking, which we then pulled,” Musk wrote. “I never forgave them.
In 2018, Epstein said New York Times writer James Stewart for advising Musk after the Securities and Exchange Commission opened an investigation into Musk’s comments about the company being private.
NBC archive video showing Donald Trump talking to Jeffrey Epstein at a 1992 Mar-A-Lago party.
NBC
When the Times reached out to Tesla for comment, the company strongly denied the claim, saying, “It is not correct to say that Epstein ever 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 conversation.
Epstein, a former friend of Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and Britain’s Prince Andrew, was a customer of the bank from 1998 to 2013. In 2008, he pleaded guilty to state charges in Florida of soliciting sex from an underage girl.
Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan prison in August 2019, a month after he was arrested on child trafficking charges.
— CNBC Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.