| By SUZANNE CARLSON Daily News Staff ST. THOMAS - The VJ. govern- | ment is ‘refusing to disclose certain | public records, according to a new filing by an attomey -representing JPMorgan 1 Che Uae mv Conroe or confidential, but are embarrassing to gov- emment officials who dealt with Jeffrey Epstem. : The bank is curently defending against a lawsuit by the VI. government,” which claims that employees kept Ep-. stein on as a client despite his suspicious cash transactions, and media reports that he had been sexually abusing underage girls, The bank’s lawyers have fired back with claims that VL government officials were aware of Epstein’s activities, but failed to hold him accountable for the 20 years he lived in the territory before his ‘August 2019 suicide while awaiting tal On new charges. On Monday, attomey Linda Singer filed a memorandum on behalf’ of the cussing how to manage the fallout from Epstein’s criminal activity, and whether to keep him on asa client. The bank's lawyers have been try- ing to file similar exhibits publicly since May 23, but are currently blocked by the government's confidentiality claims, ac- cording to a letter from JPMorgan Chase apomey Felecia Elisworth to Judge Jed Rakoff; which was also filed Yet, although USVI lacks any basis’ know: 10 maintain confidentiality over the ex- hibits cited in that filing, it has refused to ‘withdraw its confidentiality designations, tion,” according to Ellsworth. Ellsworth’ next sentence included several redactions, but hinted at the con- tents of the sealed exhibits: “Specifically, USVI has asserted confidentiality. over Teflecting embarrassing communications [redacted] that reveal the USVI’ [redacted] and its abject fail- ure to {redacted}. But avoiding embar- rassment is not a basis to keep court fil- nore public records requests or refuse to respond, citing confidentiality provisions in public employee union contracts that Codified in law. The Virgin Islands Code lists certain Telease such records, citing the list of ex- emptions as if the law fully prohibits their disclosure. The government's lack of transparency has been so egregious, the Society of Paar gee ReRTTS EL the 2015 “Black Shin Award” for its “bald and breath- ta er Obs public's night to ‘That award was given to the admin- istration of former Gov, Kenneth Mapp, but according to Ellsworth, current Goy. » thereby requiring this Court's interyen- + Albert Bryan Jrs administration is using similar tactics to withhold public records Telated to Epstein. Epstein had close contact with numer- ‘ous government officials during his life- deJongh, who worked as Epstein em- ployee for 20 years, VA. Delegate to Congress Stacey Plas- kett acknowledged during a May 9 depo- butions. Piaskett served as the VI. Economic 2007 to 2012 while Bryan was EDA chairman and Epstein, who had already been living in the Virgin Islands for about a decade, was convicted of child sex crimes in Florida. in 2008. Epstein’ continued to receive millions OF Solis ak OS from the Epstein’ benefit certificate in 2013, Bryan was scheduled to be deposed on as 6 soconcang APE CaO as there is a protective order in place to But Ellsworth argued in Monday's fil- ing that the VI. government is trying to extend the blanket of secrecy to public records that should be released. “The documents USVI seeks to shield produced in response to the bank's docu- ment requests, according to Elisworth’s filing, which contains a fully redacted desenption of the documents’ contents. “The USVI does not identify any ba- sis in the Protective Onder-for it to: des- ignate these materials as confidential,’ according to Ellsworth, who listed sey- under a U.S. Virgin Islands statute related to sex offender registration,” Ellsworth convicted sex offenders that must be pub- licly disclosed, “but it does not provide that other government records — for example, communications between” [redacted] “must be kept confidential Or are not otherwise subject to dis— closure in civil litigation,” Ellsworth wrote. Ellsworth cited another section of the V.I. Code, in which “It is hereby declared to be the policy of the Gav- ernment of the Virgin Islands that the public is entitled to the fullest practicable information regarding the decision making processes of the government,” and gives citizens the right to examine and copy all government records upon request, “unless some other provision of the Code expressly limits such right or requires such records to be kept secret or confidential.” The law includes a list of records that are exempt from the disclosure require- ment, but the statute does not actually The Jisted records “shall be kept con- fidential, unless otherwise ordered by a court, by the lawful custodian of the re- cords, or by another person duly autho-. JPMorgan: VI. trying to block release of ‘embarrassing Epstein docs rized to release information,” according to the law. : officials from that list of fifteen record types is any mention of records related to sex offender any to be made public that isn’t on the list of information that must be included on the ‘sex offender registry website. Ellsworth called the angument “dubi- ous,” given that the law also includes a list ‘of what information cannot be included on the website. In addition, federal law The VIL government has also failed to explain why the records must be kept confidential at all, other than to protect the documents is Jeffrey Epstein. It would be strange indeed if USVI now seeks to protect Jeffrey Epstein, whose cnmes form’ the basis for its lawsuit and who has been dead for almost four years,” she added - Ellsworth asked the judge to order the VL government to allow the bank to Tefile its May 23 opposition to the gov- emment' motion to strike the bank's affirmative defenses, “along with ex- hibits redacted only to the extent nec- essary to prevent the disclosure of per- sonal information regarding unrelated individuals.” -— Contact Suzanne Carlson at 340-714-9122 or email scarlson@, , | dailynews. vi. EFTA00129020 euetaticces