Elon Musk faces a subpoena in Jeffrey Epstein’s lawsuit against JPMorgan

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 because of suspicions that Epstein “may have referred or attempted to refer Musk as a client to JPMorgan.”

The U.S. Territory asked Manhattan Federal Court Judge Jed Rakoff on the filing to serve the subpoena on Musk with Tesla’s registered agent.

That subpoena requires Musk to produce all documents proving communications between himself, JPMorgan, and Epstein, as well as “any documents reflecting or related to Epstein’s involvement in human trafficking and/or his procurement of girls or women for consensual sex.” “

The Virgin Islands are suing JPMorgan for allegedly enabling and profiting from Epstein’s trafficking of young women to his private island in territory he and others abused.

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 May 4 Virgin Islands court filing revealed that the government had issued a similar subpoena for documents to Google co-founder Larry Page and that it too was having 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 Virgin Islands stated, “To the best of our knowledge, Elon Musk – the CEO of Tesla, Inc. and other companies – is a high net worth individual who Epstein may have referred or attempted to refer to JPMorgan. ” ” Musk is not only CEO of Tesla, but also head of SpaceX and owner of Twitter.

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.

Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC.

But on Monday night, Musk replied to a Twitter user, @unusual_whales, who tweeted this article.

“This is idiotic on so many levels,” Musk wrote in his Twitter reply. “1. That idiot never advised me on anything. 2. The idea that I need or listen to financial advice from a stupid scammer is absurd.”

“3. JPM abandoned Tesla 10 years ago even though we had Tesla’s global commercial banking business which we then retired,” Musk wrote. “I never forgave them.”

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 reached out to Tesla for comment, the company firmly denied the claim, saying, “It’s wrong to say Epstein ever advised Elon on anything.” to speak 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.

– CNBC’s Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.