The United States Virgin Islands attorney general, Denise George, 63, was fired on January 1, 2023, just days after filing a lawsuit in a Manhattan federal court on behalf of the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands, alleging that JPMorgan Chase “turned a blind eye” to child trafficker Jeffery Epstein’s sex crimes.
Fox News reports, “George claimed JPMorgan Chase “knowingly” facilitated, sustained and concealed Epstein’s human trafficking network, which he operated from his home in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and failed to comply with federal banking regulations.”
“I relieved Denise George of her duties as attorney general this weekend,” Mr. Bryan wrote in a statement acquired by Law & Crime. “I thank her for her service to the people of the territory during the past four years as attorney general and wish her the best in her future endeavors.”
The governor didn’t share with the network why he fired Ms. George.
Attorney General George was a member of the Child Abuse Task Force and co-authored the Virgin Islands’ first criminal child abuse and neglect statute. She was also invested in the Democratic Party.
The federal lawsuit comes over a month after two anonymous women who accused the late Jeffrey Epstein of sexual abuse filed civil lawsuits against JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank, claiming the big banks enabled and benefited financially from Epstein’s alleged sex trafficking operation.
“Over more than a decade, JPMorgan clearly knew it was not complying with federal regulations in regard to Epstein-related accounts as evidenced by its too-little too-late efforts after Epstein was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges and shortly after his death, when JPMorgan belatedly complied with federal law,” Denise George wrote in the complaint.
“Human trafficking was the principal business of the accounts Epstein maintained at JPMorgan,” the lawsuit states.
The attorney general also argued that the Wall Street bank should have paid closer attention to Epstein after he pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting prostitution with a minor.
THE FEDERAL CHARGES
Documents accuse the bank of ‘turning a blind eye’ to illegal activities committed by their client.
In her lawsuit, George alleged that JPMorgan Chase violated the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, the Virgin Islands Criminally Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, and the Virgin Islands Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act.
George alleges that JPMorgan executive Jes Staley, who was listed in Epstein’s Rolodex and sailed to his private island, “developed a close relationship with Epstein” and that Epstein “brought additional high net worth clients” to the bank, large portions of the lawsuit detailing these accusations are redacted.
Last year, Staley left his role as chief executive at Barclays after British regulators conducted an investigation into his characterization of his relationship with Epstein.
JPMorgan declined to comment.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for violating sex trafficking, bank secrecy, and consumer laws. It claims that the bank concealed “wire and cash transactions that raised suspicion of a criminal enterprise whose currency was the sexual servitude” of women and girls.
BIDEN’S VACATION’S IN VIRGIN ISLANDS
Biden arrived in St. Croix after spending Christmas at the White House to spend time with family and to celebrate a new year.
When reporters outside a local restaurant asked Biden about the 2024 presidential election, he joked, “There’s an election coming up?” going on to say that “2023 is going to be a good year.”
Besides his grandchildren and wife, the president was accompanied to the island by his daughter Ashley and her husband, Howard Krein.
The Biden family stayed at a home owned by friends Bill and Connie Neville, who are billionaire Democrat donor software moguls. The Neville couple was also at Biden’s state dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron on December 1.
A few people pointed out that Biden helped a Ukrainian prosecutor get fired over a deal, and that Biden’s trip to the Island was right around the time when AG George was fired.
Other Twitter followers pointed out that NYC Mayor Eric Adams was in the Virgin Islands the week before Biden’s visit.
Last month Epstein’s estate agreed to pay the USVI more than $105m as part of a settlement in a case involving his sex trafficking and child exploitation on the islands’ territory.
As part of the agreement, the estate agreed to pay the USVI half the proceeds from the sale of Little St James, the private island he bought in 1998 and allegedly used for many of his sexual crimes.
