WSJ : Elon Musk Issued Subpoena in Lawsuit Over JPMorgan’s Ties to Jeffrey Epste

Elon Musk Issued Subpoena in Lawsuit Over JPMorgan’s Ties to Jeffrey Epstein
U.S. Virgin Islands seeking documents from Tesla leader for its civil suit against bank

Elon Musk is being asked to turn over documents as part of a civil lawsuit by the U.S. Virgin Islands against JPMorgan JPM 0.84%increase; green up pointing triangle Chase over the bank’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, according to court documents filed Monday.

The U.S. Virgin Islands said it wants information from Mr. Musk because it believes the Tesla chief executive “is a high-net-worth individual who Epstein may have referred or attempted to refer to JPMorgan,” according to the court filing.

Lawyers in the case issued a subpoena for documents to Mr. Musk on April 28, but they have been unable to physically serve him with the court papers, according to Monday’s filing. So the lawyers are seeking a judge’s approval to issue the subpoena to Mr. Musk by email, the filing states.

In a tweet, Mr. Musk called the subpoena “idiotic on so many levels” and said that Epstein never advised him. “The notion that I would need or listen to financial advice from a dumb crook is absurd,” he said.

Mr. Musk also said Tesla had a dispute with JPMorgan a decade ago and withdrew its business from the bank. “I have never forgiven them,” he said.

Spokeswomen for the U.S. Virgin Islands and JPMorgan declined to comment.

It is unclear how much business Mr. Musk would have done with JPMorgan. He currently has a contentious relationship with the bank and his companies have largely relied on other banks.

Epstein, who had a residence in the U.S. Virgin Islands, banked with JPMorgan for a number of years until it closed his accounts in 2013, though bankers continued meeting with him years later, the Journal has reported. Epstein died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges.

The U.S. Virgin Islands sued JPMorgan late last year in a Manhattan federal court, saying the bank facilitated Epstein’s alleged sex trafficking and abuse by allowing the late financier to remain a client and helping him send money to his victims.

The civil lawsuit alleges that JPMorgan received referrals of high-value business opportunities from Epstein and turned a blind eye to his activities. The bank has said it didn’t know about Epstein’s alleged crimes and can’t be held liable.

In March, the U.S. Virgin Island issued subpoenas to other billionaires, including Google co-founder Sergey Brin, to gather information for its civil lawsuit. In civil cases, lawyers can use subpoenas during the discovery process to get information from people who aren’t a party to a lawsuit but could provide evidence related to the case.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon is scheduled to be deposed as part of the case. Lawyers have already questioned several JPMorgan employees in this case and one filed by an unnamed woman who accused Epstein of sexual abuse. The cases are running concurrently in Manhattan federal court.

FT : What is living in a tax haven actually like — and is it worth it?

What is living in a tax haven actually like — and is it worth it?
The rich have long sought out wealth-friendly regions, but many of these places lack the comforts of home

In recent months, there’s been a lot of noise about rich Norwegians fleeing the country as the centre-left government’s wealth tax rises kick in. According to the newspaper Dagens Naeringsliv, more wealthy people left Norway in 2022 than in the preceding 13 years. Notable are businessman Kjell Inge Røkke, once Norway’s richest person, and Fredrik Haga, co-founder of the cryptocurrency data business Dune. Both have gone to Switzerland.

Of course, the rich have long decamped to more tax-efficient climes. Celebrated tax exiles range from playwright Noël Coward to actors Sean Connery and Gérard Depardieu. Guy Hands, the financier, moved to the Channel Island of Guernsey, retail tycoon Philip Green spends a lot of time in Monaco, and Richard Branson is resident on Necker (which he owns) in the British Virgin Islands.

Leaving aside the ethics of this — and the arguments over whether wealth flight means tax rises actually reduce overall receipts — the question I find myself asking is: What is living in a tax haven actually like? Is it worth it? And which tax haven is best? The last of these is a tougher question than it might seem. Tax haven rankings (whether pejorative or positive) tend to score jurisdictions on how little tax you can pay, not on great restaurants, natural beauty or cultural amenities.

There’s a good reason for this. Many tax havens are rather strange places to live full-time. I have a bit of insight to offer here, myself. My mother’s family are from Guernsey (for ancestral, not high net worth reasons, alas) and I have taken many family holidays there. It is a beautiful, peaceful place; I love the rugged cliffs, granite houses, crab sandwiches and half-French vibe. But I’d struggle to base myself there, especially after living in London. The island measures just under 24 square miles and can feel like a picturesque medium-sized town that you can only leave by boat or plane.

Indeed, when Hands moved there in 2009, in protest at rising UK rates, much was made of limitations such as this, and that he had moved away from his family in order to avoid tax. He didn’t gain any sympathy by explaining that his (then) school-age children had to travel to Guernsey to see him and, “I do not visit my parents in the United Kingdom and would not do so except in an emergency.”

Tim Walford-Fitzgerald, private client partner at the accountancy firm HW Fisher, says that considerations like these put many off, even if they dislike paying tax: “Few people are willing to limit their social and family commitments to the extent that can be needed, unless the tax saved is very significant.”

And even if family and friends aren’t an issue, tax havens often impose considerable lifestyle restraints. The European ones are relatively convenient, but tend to be small (Monaco is less than a square mile), expensive and cold for part of the year. Conversely, sunny, easygoing tax havens can be very inconvenient. Bermuda, Cayman Islands and the Bahamas regularly top tax haven rankings. The first two are a fair distance from anywhere. The Bahamas are pretty convenient for Miami but, while the US city scores highly on many business metrics, some do not count it as a true global hub. According to the GaWC think-tank at Loughborough University, it is a “beta+” city like Auckland and Dallas (London and New York are alpha++).

Walford-Fitzgerald says: “There is rarely one ‘go-to’ location that suits everyone.”

For those who really go off-piste with tax havens, there can be other problems to deal with. Depardieu famously became a Russian citizen in 2013 after a row with French authorities over a proposed supertax on millionaires. Then, last year, he criticised Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. He now appears to be a UAE citizen.

Perhaps the best places are countries such as Switzerland, which have tax regimes that are favourable to wealthy foreigners but are nonetheless sizeable, well-connected and have proper cities (and great skiing). Norway’s Røkke moved to the Swiss city of Lugano, which is close to the Italian border and handy for Lake Como and Milan.

Walford-Fitzgerald points out less obvious options: although the Middle East is well known as a tax-friendly region, “it isn’t just the classic Arab states. Many Jewish clients think about Israel, which offers a 10-year tax holiday for Jews ‘returning’.” Or, he says: “For those seeking a middle ground, there are countries that have preferential regimes in respect of overseas income, allowing immigrants to shelter certain sources for a period of time.”

Even so, it can seem a lot of hassle just to avoid paying tax. As writer Malcolm Gladwell mused about Hands in an FT interview, “He is incredibly rich and what is the first thing he does? He takes a step that negates the benefit of being rich.” Gladwell concluded that once you’d reached a certain level of wealth, changing your home country or otherwise restricting your freedom of movement to save money was pointless. 

>>> Appaloosa (David Tepper) discloses updated portfolio positions in 13F filing

Appaloosa (David Tepper) discloses updated portfolio positions in 13F filing: New MTCH ARKK FDX positions

Highlights from Q1 2023 filing as compared to Q4 2022:
  • New positions in: MTCH (~0.53 mln shares), ARKK (~0.5 mln), FDX (~0.35 mln), NVDA (~0.15 mln), TSLA (~0.15 mln)
  • Increased positions in: UBER (to ~6 mln shares from ~1.23 mln shares), AMZN (to ~2 mln from ~1.5 mln), META (to ~0.7 mln from ~0.58 mln), GOOG (to ~2.11 mln from ~2 mln), MSFT (to ~0.26 mln from ~0.24 mln)
  • Maintained positions in: ET (~10.2 mln shares), M (~6 mln shares), EQT (~2.55 mln shares), AR (~1.28 mln shares), CZR (~0.43 mln shares), DIS (~0.3 mln shares), CHK (~0.25 mln shares), UNH (~0.15 mln shares)
  • Closed positions in: APTV (from ~0.05 mln shares)
  • Decreased positions in: CEG (to ~2.09 mln shares from ~2.4 mln shares), HCA (to ~0.14 mln from ~0.18 mln), CRM (to ~0.29 mln from ~0.3 mln)

>>> Corvex Management (Keith Meister) discloses updated portfolio positions in 1

Corvex Management (Keith Meister) discloses updated portfolio positions in 13F filing: New AQN EDR UBER positions

Highlights from Q1 2023 filing as compared to Q4 2022:
  • New positions in: AQN (~11.9 mln shares), EDR (~1.88 mln), UBER (~0.72 mln), AMZN (~0.13 mln), LSI (~0.09 mln), MTN (~0.06 mln)
  • Increased positions in: WGS (to ~86.81 mln shares from ~9.15 mln shares), CSX (to ~1.95 mln from ~0.81 mln), SWX (to ~0.91 mln from ~0.04 mln), CEG (to ~1.84 mln from ~1.29 mln), AMBP (to ~0.86 mln from ~0.36 mln)
  • Maintained positions in: MDU (~10.15 mln shares), MGM (~6.67 mln shares), LSXMA (~0.93 mln shares), IAC (~0.87 mln shares), CCEP (~0.8 mln shares)
  • Closed positions in: CCK (from ~0.89 mln shares), ARYD (from ~0.4 mln)
  • Decreased positions in: FMX (to ~1.76 mln shares from ~2.52 mln shares), CRC (to ~2.6 mln from ~3.06 mln), GOOGL (to ~0.18 mln from ~0.56 mln), MSFT (to ~0.06 mln from ~0.36 mln), AES (to ~4 mln from ~4.17 mln)

>>> Greenlight Capital (David Einhorn) discloses updated portfolio positions in

Greenlight Capital (David Einhorn) discloses updated portfolio positions in 13F filing: Confirms new NYCB BKI positions, confirms VSCO exited

Highlights from Q1 2023 filing as compared to Q4 2022:
  • New positions in: NYCB (confirms ~2.28 mln shares), BKI (confirms ~0.92 mln), RONI (~0.76 mln), PDBC (~0.1 mln), FCG (~0.06 mln), FCNCA (~0.02 mln), OIH (~0.01 mln)
  • Increased positions in: CEIX (to ~2.72 mln shares from ~1.81 mln shares), THC (to ~1.43 mln from ~0.66 mln), DNMR (to ~2.55 mln from ~2.25 mln), CPRI (to ~1.24 mln from ~0.95 mln), TECK (to ~2.49 mln from ~2.24 mln), LIVN (to ~1.03 mln from ~0.84 mln), GPOR (to ~0.28 mln from ~0.13 mln) GPN (to ~0.6 mln from ~0.47 mln), CNXC (to ~0.21 mln from ~0.1 mln), GLD (to ~0.23 mln from ~0.21 mln)
  • Maintained positions in: GRBK (~16.6 mln shares), SWN (~8.92 mln shares), BHF (~3.12 mln shares), ODP (~1.63 mln shares), SLV (~1.49 mln shares), GPK (~1.07 mln shares), WFRD (~0.58 mln shares), CIVI (~0.46 mln shares)
  • Closed positions in: FNKO (from ~0.52 mln shares), VSCO (confirms exited; was ~0.41 mln), CNX (from ~0.22 mln) ME (from ~0.02 mln)
  • Decreased positions in: REZI (to ~0.66 mln shares from ~1.48 mln shares), KD (to ~8.5 mln from ~9.01 mln), GPRO (to ~2.6 mln from ~2.67 mln), GLPG (to ~0.15 mln from ~0.16 mln)

>>> Carl Icahn discloses updated portfolio positions in 13F filing

Carl Icahn discloses updated portfolio positions in 13F filing: Confirms ILMN position and increased SWX holding

Highlights from Q1 2023 filing as compared to Q4 2022:
  • New positions in: ILMN (confirms ~0.43 mln shares)
  • Increased positions in: SWX (to ~10.52 mln shares from ~6.61 mln shares)
  • Maintained positions in: IEP (~300 mln shares), CVI (~71.2 mln shares), BHC (~34.72 mln shares), XRX (~34.25 mln shares), FE (~18.97 mln shares), DAN (~14.29 mln shares)
  • Decreased positions in: HRI (confirms lowered to ~0.23 mln shares from ~3.7 mln shares), NWL (confirms lowered to to ~29.99 mln from ~33.07 mln)

>>> Pershing Square (Bill Ackman) discloses updated portfolio positions in 13F f

Pershing Square (Bill Ackman) discloses updated portfolio positions in 13F filing: New GOOG / GOOGL positions, Slightly lowered HLT LOW CMG holdings

Highlights from Q1 2023 filing as compared to Q4 2022:
  • New positions in: GOOG (~8.07 mln shares), GOOGL (~2.19 mln)
  • Maintained positions in: QSR (~24.19 mln shares), HHC (~15.98 mln shares), CP (~15.24 mln shares)
  • Decreased positions in: HLT (to ~9.3 mln shares from ~10.03 mln shares), LOW (to ~10.04 mln from ~10.37 mln), CMG (to ~1.03 mln from ~1.11 mln)

>>> Elliott Management (Paul Singer) discloses updated portfolio positions in 13

Elliott Management (Paul Singer) discloses updated portfolio positions in 13F filing: New RSVR position, Exited AJRD / NWSA

Highlights from Q1 2023 filing as compared to Q4 2022:
  • New positions in: RSVR (~0.4 mln shares)
  • Increased positions in: LQD (to ~2.5 mln shares from ~2.23 mln shares)
  • Maintained positions in: PINS (~27.91 mln shares), ETWO (~19.17 mln shares), MPC (~11.07 mln shares), CLVT (~10 mln shares), SU (~10 mln shares), NE (~2.85 mln shares), CAH (~2 mln shares), PYPL (~1 mln shares), LBRDK (~0.92 mln shares)
  • Closed positions in: AJRD (from ~0.85 mln shares), NWSA (from ~0.06 mln)
  • Decreased positions in: HWM (to ~24.68 mln shares from ~34.69 mln shares), HYG (to ~0.68 mln from ~7.13 mln), BTU (to ~21.11 mln from ~23.03 mln), VAL (to ~1.97 mln from ~3.45 mln), PSNY (to ~1.12 mln from ~1.24 mln)

>>> Glenview Capital (Larry Robbins and Mark Horowitz) discloses updated portfol

Glenview Capital (Larry Robbins and Mark Horowitz) discloses updated portfolio positions in 13F filing: New AVTR CANO DOMA AMZN positions, Exited BAX, ZI, META

Highlights from Q1 2023 filing as compared to Q4 2022:
  • New positions in: AVTR (~1.86 mln shares), CANO (~0.95 mln), DOMA (~0.5 mln), MTCH (~0.47 mln), AMZN (~0.45 mln), KNX (~0.38 mln), DVA (~0.28 mln), FDX (~0.16 mln), CAH (~0.14 mln)
  • Increased positions in: ALIT (to ~14.14 mln shares from ~7.83 mln shares), BKD (to ~18.64 mln from ~13.84 mln), BFLY (to ~8.03 mln from ~5.46 mln), CLVT (to ~11.63 mln from ~10.08 mln), CELL (to ~3.82 mln from ~2.61 mln) MYGN (to ~4.2 mln from ~3.1 mln), SABR (to ~2.2 mln from ~1.14 mln) CTVA (to ~1.64 mln from ~0.68 mln), EVLV (to ~6.32 mln from ~5.98 mln),
  • Maintained positions in: ESI (~3.02 mln shares), CI (~1.85 mln shares), APTV (~0.93 mln shares), MCK (~0.64 mln shares)
  • Closed positions in: BAX (from ~2.01 mln shares), ISO (from ~1.97 mln), ZI (from ~1.75 mln), BHC (from ~1.5 mln), LVS (from ~0.77 mln), FTCH (from ~0.62 mln), META (from ~0.53 mln), TPX (from ~0.39 mln), PYPL (from ~0.25 mln)
  • Decreased positions in: FLEX (to ~1.92 mln shares from ~4.05 mln shares), THC (to ~7.27 mln from ~8.9 mln), UBER (to ~2.98 mln from ~4.01 mln), CCEP (to ~1.2 mln from ~2.07 mln), DXC (to ~8.96 mln from ~9.7 mln), DNB (to ~0.15 mln from ~0.88 mln), FISV (to ~2.15 mln from ~2.52 mln), USFD (to ~3.59 mln from ~3.84 mln), GPN (to ~2.24 mln from ~2.39 mln), ATVI (to ~0.84 mln from ~0.97 mln)

>>> Viking Global (Andreas Halvorsen) discloses updated portfolio positions in 1

Viking Global (Andreas Halvorsen) discloses updated portfolio positions in 13F filing: New CPNG ZI RIVN CNHI EMR positions, Exited UBER LI BN AIG AMD

Highlights from Q1 2023 filing as compared to Q4 2022:
  • New positions in: CPNG (~7.42 mln shares), ZI (~6.67 mln), RIVN (~5.25 mln), CNHI (~2.83 mln), ALKS (~2.78 mln), EMR (~2.4 mln), SHW (~2.25 mln), CEG (~2.05 mln), VKTX (~1.96 mln), LULU (~1.89 mln), DELL (~1.09 mln), OPCH (~1.09 mln), CL (~0.66 mln), WDAY (~0.64 mln), TJX (~0.41 mln), SNOW (~0.38 mln), TRV (~0.38 mln)
  • Increased positions in: DNA (to ~143.09 mln shares from ~63.09 mln shares), CSX (to ~22.06 mln from ~15.55 mln), FTNT (to ~11.88 mln from ~7.13 mln), VVV (to ~7.4 mln from ~4.88 mln), FTV (to ~6.35 mln from ~3.89 mln), RPRX (to ~11.2 mln from ~10.01 mln), RCI (to ~5.55 mln from ~4.38 mln) MCK (to ~3.21 mln from ~2.2 mln), META (to ~3.23 mln from ~2.39 mln), GE (to ~8.61 mln from ~7.78 mln)
  • Maintained positions in: ROIV (~88.24 mln shares), APG (~34.09 mln shares), ADPT (~29.99 mln shares), BBIO (~26.62 mln shares), TMO (~0.86 mln shares)
  • Closed positions in: LI (from ~9.09 mln shares), BEKE (from ~8.08 mln), UBER (from ~7.94 mln), BN (from ~7.26 mln), AIG (from ~2.59 mln), AMD (from ~1.91 mln), CPRI (from ~0.81 mln), CLX (from ~0.77 mln), RH (from ~0.75 mln), CRWD (from ~0.7 mln), CRWD (from ~0.7 mln), RRX (from ~0.36 mln), ALB (from ~0.34 mln), DG (from ~0.31 mln), PODD (from ~0.27 mln), SWAV (from ~0.16 mln)
  • Decreased positions in: BSX (to ~1.14 mln shares from ~9.53 mln shares), MU (to ~2.86 mln from ~8.36 mln), AMZN (to ~7.63 mln from ~12.48 mln), BMRN (to ~2.17 mln from ~5.27 mln), MSFT (to ~1.05 mln from ~3.43 mln), SQ (to ~2.35 mln from ~4.48 mln), AMLX (to ~2.96 mln from ~4.63 mln), GH (to ~2.54 mln from ~4.11 mln), EQH (to ~3.99 mln from ~5.21 mln), MA (to ~0.8 mln from ~1.71 mln)