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The U.S. Virgin islands subpoenaed Elon Musk on Monday seeking documents in the government’s lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase over sex trafficking by the bank’s longtime customer Jeffrey Epstein, according to a motion obtained by Rolling Stone.
That filing states that Musk is “a high-net-worth individual who Epstein may have referred or attempted to refer to JPMorgan,” and that the Virgin Islands has unsuccessfully attempted to serve Musk with thesubpoena, which was issued on April 28.
The Government contacted Mr. Musk’s counsel via 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,” the filing said.
In November last year, Epstein’s estate agreed to pay the Virgin Islands more than $105 million in cash to settle alawsuitalleging thedisgraced late financierused the territory as a base for trafficking of young women and children to his secluded private island.
The settlement arrived nearly three years after Denise N. George, the attorney general for the U.S. Virgin Islands, sued Epstein, whoseAugust 2019 deathwas ruled a suicide.
The billionaire has faced recent several lawsuits, including a class action lawsuit against him filed by Tesla investors stemming from a 2018 tweetin which Musk claimed he had “funding secured” to take Tesla private. The tweet caused a massive volatility in Tesla’s stock value, which the plaintiffs claimed caused them financial harm.The CEO was found not liable in the suit.
Musk’s car company was recently ordered to pay about $3.2 million in April to a former Black employee after he won a racial harassment lawsuitin which he claimed the company failed to act after he repeatedly reported that factory employees used racist slurs and marked swastikas, racist caricatures and epithets on work areas. Tesla is also facing multiplesexual harassment lawsuits, reported on by Rolling Stone last fall.
A federal appeals court on Monday rejectedMusk’s bid to modify or end his 2018 securities fraud settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission that required aTeslalawyer to approve some of his tweets in advance.
In the appeal, the Tesla owner’s lawyers claimed the pre-approval mandate was a “government-imposed muzzle.” Musk’s claim that the SEC exploited his consent decree to conduct bad-faith, harassing investigations that violated his First Amendment free speech rights under the Constitution was rejected by the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan.
