The USVI And Their Motion To Strike The JP Morgan Affirmative Defenses (Part 2) (9/26/26)

The Government of the United States Virgin Islands asks the court to strike four affirmative defenses asserted by JPMorgan in the lawsuit accusing the bank of knowingly participating in and benefiting from Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation. The USVI alleges that JPMorgan provided the financial infrastructure through which Epstein paid victims and recruiters while concealing suspicious transactions from law enforcement. JPMorgan argues that the government’s claims should be barred or reduced under the doctrines of in pari delicto, unclean hands, laches, and comparative or contributory fault, effectively contending that the USVI’s own conduct or failure to act contributed to the alleged harm.

The USVI responds that these defenses are legally unavailable because it is acting as a sovereign enforcing the Trafficking Victims Protection Act on behalf of the public, not as a private litigant seeking compensation for an ordinary injury. Citing decisions holding that equitable and fault-shifting defenses generally cannot be used against governments enforcing public rights, the USVI argues that JPMorgan cannot evade scrutiny of its own conduct by blaming territorial officials for allegedly failing to uncover or stop Epstein sooner. The government maintains that allowing the defenses to remain would produce unnecessary discovery into its policy and enforcement decisions, increase the cost and length of the litigation, and distract from the central question of whether JPMorgan violated federal trafficking law.



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