Elon Musk, CEO of electric car manufacturer Tesla, meets with French Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire on the sidelines of the 6th edition of the “Choose France” summit at the Palace of Versailles, just outside Paris, on May 15, 2023.
Ludovic Marin | Pool | Via Reuters
The US Virgin Islands issued a subpoena Tesla CEO Elon Musk is seeking documents for this government’s lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase for sex trafficking by the late longtime bank client Jeffrey Epstein, according to a court filing filed Monday.
That filing said the Virgin Islands had unsuccessfully attempted to serve Musk the subpoena, which was issued on April 28 on suspicions that Epstein “may have referred or attempted to refer Musk as a client to JPMorgan.”
The USVI in the filing asked Manhattan Federal Court Judge Jed Rakoff to allow the government to serve Musk the subpoena for the documents with Tesla’s registered agent.
The US Territory is suing JPMorgan for allegedly enabling and profiting from Epstein’s trafficking of young women to his private island in the Virgin Islands for abuse by him and others.
JPMorgan disputes the government’s claims, which are reflected in a separate pending civil lawsuit in Manhattan federal court in which a woman alleges that Epstein sexually abused her. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon is scheduled to be fired beginning May 26 for both lawsuits.
A USVI court filing dated May 4 showed that the government had issued a similar subpoena for documents to Google co-founder Larry Page, and that the USVI also had trouble locating Page.
And the territory has previously issued subpoenas to Page’s Google co-founder Sergey Brin, former Disney exec Michael Ovitz, Hyatt Hotels CEO Thomas Pritzker and Mort Zuckerman, the billionaire real estate investor.
In Monday’s filing, the USVI said, “To the best of our knowledge, Elon Musk — the CEO of Tesla, Inc. and other companies — is a high net worth individual who may have recommended or attempted to recommend Epstein.”
to JPMorgan.”
The government said it hired an investigative firm to find out an address for Musk and also contacted one of his lawyers.
According to the filing, this attorney has refrained from having legal documents served on him in person in previous federal proceedings.
“The Government emailed Mr Musk’s attorney to ask if he had authority to accept service on Mr Musk’s behalf in this matter, but received no response confirming or denying his authority,” it said it on file.
CNBC reached out to Musk for comment. Musk is not only CEO of Tesla, but also head of SpaceX and owner of Twitter.
In 2018, Epstein told New York Times writer James Stewart that he had advised Musk after the Securities and Exchange Commission opened an investigation into Musk’s comments about the company’s privatization.
A video still from the NBC archives of Donald Trump speaking to Jeffrey Epstein at a party in Mar-A-Lago in 1992.
NBC
When The Times asked Tesla for comment, the company adamantly denied that claim, saying, “It’s wrong to say Epstein ever advised Elon on anything.” to talk to him or to be his friend,” says an article about her interview.
Epstein, a former friend of Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew of Great Britain, was a client of the bank from 1998 to 2013. In 2008, he pleaded guilty in Florida to soliciting sex from an underage girl.
Epstein took his own life in a Manhattan jail in August 2019, a month after he was arrested on child trafficking charges.
– Additional coverage from CNBC Lora Kolodny
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