Highly Confidential Pursuant To Protective Order
- Date
- 2021-05-07
Summary
Exhibit 44 to a filing in Blue Flame Medical LLC v. Chain Bridge Bank, N.A., John J. Brough, and David M. Evinger, Civil Action No. 1:20-cv-00658, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (Alexandria Division), filed May 7, 2021 as Document 132-44. The exhibit reproduces selected pages from the remote videotaped deposition of a designated corporate witness, taken February 9, 2021 at 9:35 a.m., in an action in which Chain Bridge Bank, N.A. is third-party plaintiff against JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. Every page is stamped "Highly Confidential Pursuant to Protective Order." The selected pages question the witness about an instruction received from the State of California on March 26, 2020 to wire approximately $457 million to Chain Bridge Bank for Blue Flame Medical, and about approvals required above $50 million. The exhibit runs 23 pages.
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Case 1:20-cv-00658-LMB-IDD Document 132-44 Filed 05/07/21 Page 1 of 23
PageID# 2897
EXHIBIT 44
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PageID# 2898
HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL PURSUANT TO PROTECTIVE ORDER
Page 1
1 HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL
2 PURSUANT TO PROTECTIVE ORDER
3 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA
4 (Alexandria Division)
--------------------------------x
5 BLUE FLAME MEDICAL LLC,
Plaintiff,
6
-against- Civil Action
7 No.
CHAIN BRIDGE BANK, N.A., JOHN J. 1:20-cv-00658
8 BROUGH, and DAVID M. EVINGER,
Defendants.
9 --------------------------------x
CHAIN BRIDGE BANK, N.A.,
10 Third-Party Plaintiff,
11 -against-
12 JPMORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A.,
Third-Party Defendant.
13 --------------------------------x
14 February 9, 2021
9:35 a.m.
15
16
17 Remote Videotaped Deposition of
18 RAKESH KORPAL, a 30(b)(6) Witness, held in
19 the above-entitled action, located in Tampa,
20 Florida, taken before Dawn Matera, a
21 Shorthand Reporter and Notary Public.
22
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1 brokers 99 percent of the time, how were
2 those funds recovered?
3 A. We would speak with the
4 financial institution that received the
5 funds. There would be a mutual
6 discussion to understand where those
7 funds are and determining if there is any
8 viability in us being able to recover
9 those funds.
10 And then assuming that was the
11 case, we would submit a recall request to
12 the financial institution and then
13 receive those funds back.
14 Q. And how was it determined
15 whether there was any viability in
16 JPMorgan being able to recover funds?
17 A. The financial institution that
18 received the moneys was the only one who
19 had visibility into the account, the
20 balances or the status of the funds.
21 Q. What do you mean by status of
22 the funds?
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1 A. Had the funds been credited to
2 the ultimate beneficiary's account or
3 not.
4 Q. And if they had been credited
5 to the ultimate beneficiary's account,
6 that would mean they would not be able to
7 be returned to JPMorgan, correct?
8 MR. SCHOENFELD: Objection.
9 MR. BURKE: Objection to the
10 form.
11 Q. Can you answer that question,
12 Mr. Korpal?
13 A. The funds could be recovered.
14 However, it would require debit
15 authorization potentially from the
16 beneficiary or the beneficiary account
17 owner.
18 Q. And here, with respect to the
19 wire transfers we've been discussing
20 regarding Chain Bridge Bank and Blue
21 Flame Medical, are you aware of any
22 authorization of Blue Flame Medical to
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1 return the funds to JPMorgan?
2 A. No.
3 Q. Did JPMorgan understand that
4 Blue Flame Medical was not involved --
5 let me rephrase that.
6 Did JPMorgan understand that
7 Blue Flame Medical had not authorized the
8 return of the funds to JPMorgan?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. Was it JPMorgan's understanding
11 that Chain Bridge Bank had concerns that
12 there could be fraud with respect to this
13 transaction?
14 A. I don't believe they said
15 fraud. I think they just were
16 suspicious.
17 Q. Do you recall that they said
18 that the transaction didn't smell right
19 to them?
20 A. They just said that the
21 transaction was suspicious.
22 Q. Do you recall whether they had
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1 A. I am trying to calculate the
2 hours.
3 Q. Approximately.
4 A. About 12 hours, I would say.
5 Q. And did you spend additional
6 time preparing individually or that's
7 part of the 12 hours?
8 A. That's part of the 12 hours.
9 Q. Got you. Thanks.
10 So I just want to try to walk
11 through, Mr. Korpal, the history of the
12 wire transaction that we've been talking
13 about in sort of an organized fashion.
14 We have skipped around a little bit. I
15 just want to preview for you what I am
16 trying to develop is JPMorgan's
17 understanding as to the chronology of
18 events with respect to that March 26th
19 wire and the events on March 26th
20 relating to that wire or around March
21 26th.
22 When did JPMorgan first receive
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1 an instruction from the State of
2 California to wire approximately $457
3 million to Chain Bridge Bank for the
4 benefit of Blue Flame Medical?
5 A. That would be March 26th, 2020.
6 Q. How did it receive that
7 instruction?
8 A. The instructions are entered,
9 verified and released by the client using
10 an electronic portal channel that we
11 provide to our clients called Access,
12 A-C-C-E-S-S.
13 Q. Do you know when the
14 instructions were entered into Access?
15 A. Based on the documentation that
16 I saw, it was slightly after 8 p.m.
17 Pacific coast time on March 26th, 2020.
18 Q. Okay. And what happened after
19 that instruction was entered into the
20 Access system by the State of California?
21 A. A second operator in the State
22 of California reviewed and released the
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1 transaction. The transaction was then
2 delivered into our wire payments
3 platform. And then it alerted within our
4 roll payment guardian application which
5 is screening for suspicious transaction
6 activity.
7 The agent then contacted the
8 State of California to validate the
9 transaction in addition to some research
10 the agent would have conducted. Received
11 approvals from her manager. And then a
12 third manager or team lead released the
13 transaction for delivery to Chain Bridge
14 Bank in McLean, Virginia.
15 Q. Okay. Let's go over some of
16 that.
17 Who was the agent that you
18 mentioned?
19 A. Michelle Long is her name. She
20 is on our team.
21 Q. And did she then get approval
22 from her manager following her review?
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1 A. She communicated with the State
2 of California first. And the State of
3 California approved the transaction for
4 release and confirmed it to be valid, at
5 which point Michelle would have requested
6 approval from a manager, given the large
7 value of the transaction, that she had
8 followed the appropriate steps to
9 authenticate and validate the transaction
10 for release.
11 Q. Okay. And do you know, who did
12 Michelle Long speak with at the State of
13 California?
14 A. I believe it was Natalie
15 Gonzalez.
16 Q. Okay. And then after Michelle
17 Long validated the transaction by
18 confirming with the State of California
19 that it was approved, what did she do
20 next?
21 A. She then would submit a request
22 into the managers, would be myself,
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1 Jennifer Robinson and Tim Coffey.
2 Because it was a transaction
3 that was larger than $50 million, it
4 requires a vice president or above to
5 review and validate the steps that were
6 taken to authenticate the transaction and
7 validate the transaction for release.
8 Q. And did such a review and
9 validation occur by a manager?
10 A. Yes, Tim Coffey.
11 Q. And did Mr. Coffey approve the
12 transaction?
13 A. He did.
14 Q. And what happened after that?
15 A. The approval from Tim Coffey is
16 attached to the transaction case file.
17 And then a second manager reviews all of
18 the work that Michelle had completed, the
19 conversation or the validation of the
20 conversation with the State of California
21 and the authorized party, as well as Tim
22 Coffey's approval.
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1 And then the transaction was
2 released for settlement with Chain Bridge
3 Bank.
4 Q. Who was the second manager that
5 Michelle sought approval from and
6 received approval from?
7 A. His name is Su, S-U, Nguyen,
8 N-G-U-Y-E-N.
9 Q. And do you know what Su Nguyen
10 did in connection with reviewing the
11 transaction?
12 A. As part of the procedure, he
13 would validate the search that -- the
14 independent search that Michelle would
15 have done; the confirmation of the
16 conversation that she had with the State
17 of California; what she utilized in terms
18 of information to contact them. And then
19 authenticate them.
20 And then, in addition, that
21 there was an approval for a 50 million or
22 larger transaction from a vice president
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1 or above.
2 Q. And Su Nguyen undertook those
3 steps and completed them to JPMorgan's
4 satisfaction, correct?
5 A. Yes, and then released the
6 transaction.
7 Q. What time was the wire transfer
8 released?
9 A. Approximately noon Eastern.
10 Q. Prior to the time the wire was
11 released, had JPMorgan spoken to Chain
12 Bridge Bank?
13 A. Prior to the transaction being
14 released? No.
15 Q. Prior to the time when the
16 transaction was released, how many times
17 had JPMorgan spoken with a representative
18 of the State of California with respect
19 to the transfer?
20 A. I believe it was just Michelle
21 Long that one time to authenticate and
22 validate the transaction.
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1 Q. Okay. And specifically, what
2 was the process she followed to
3 authenticate and validate the
4 transaction?
5 MR. SCHOENFELD: Objection.
6 Q. You can answer, Mr. Korpal.
7 A. I thought I heard an objection.
8 MR. SCHOENFELD: When I object,
9 you can go ahead and answer unless I
10 tell you not to.
11 THE WITNESS: Okay. I'm sorry.
12 A. So Michelle would have followed
13 a script. We have a script for all of
14 our agents, which outlines the verbiage
15 that they should be using to confirm the
16 transaction and confirm the caller that
17 they are speaking with as well.
18 Q. And she actually did that in
19 accordance with the script, correct?
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. Did anybody else at JPMorgan
22 have a conversation with the State of
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1 million.
2 Q. And did you receive the
3 details?
4 A. I had received the details
5 subsequent to that conversation based on
6 my follow-up when she confirmed the
7 transaction had been completed.
8 Q. So what happened next,
9 Mr. Korpal? Did you review those
10 details?
11 A. I asked Tim Coffey to pull the
12 transaction details for me. I reviewed
13 the transaction details. And I asked Tim
14 Coffey to call Chain Bridge Bank to
15 determine if they knew the beneficiary of
16 the funds and what the disposition of the
17 transactions or the funds were at that
18 point.
19 He came back to me and
20 confirmed that they had received the
21 transaction. They were suspicious of it.
22 And they had held the funds and not
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1 credited the account of Blue Flame
2 Medical.
3 Tim and I then spoke with Blue
4 Flame Medical to understand, again, the
5 disposition of the funds and what their
6 concerns were with the transaction.
7 They confirmed that the
8 transaction had not been credited to Blue
9 Flame Medical's account. This was a
10 newly established account with no
11 balances. And the account -- so then I
12 asked if they knew the owner of the
13 account and they said yes, he is a
14 lobbyist in the area.
15 Q. What did Chain Bridge Bank tell
16 Mr. Coffey with respect to the suspicions
17 they had relating to the transaction?
18 A. The first conversation that Tim
19 had with the Chain Bridge Bank was that
20 they were concerned with the size of the
21 transaction. They had never received a
22 transaction that large and that they were
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1 holding the funds. They had not credited
2 the account of Blue Flame Medical.
3 Q. Did JPMorgan ever reach out to
4 Blue Flame Medical?
5 A. Not that I am aware of.
6 Q. In the time that you first
7 reached out to Mr. Coffey to ask him to
8 call Chain Bridge Bank to the time when
9 you learned from Chain Bridge Bank that
10 the owner of the account was a lobbyist
11 in the area, did JPMorgan do anything
12 else with respect to the transaction?
13 A. Not with the transaction, no.
14 Q. Did JPMorgan do anything else
15 to follow up with respect to the
16 transaction prior to the time that it
17 issued a recall request to Chain Bridge
18 Bank?
19 A. Yes, that was when Art Neville,
20 the relationship person, and Ana Prieto,
21 the client service person, contacted the
22 State of California to determine if they
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1 after the recall notice was sent or prior
2 to the notice, the recall notice being
3 sent?
4 A. I don't recall that one.
5 Q. Okay.
6 A. I would have to go and research
7 that.
8 Q. Do you know when you informed
9 the global security investigations team
10 that you were researching a potentially
11 suspicious transaction?
12 A. It was just prior to our
13 conversation with Blue Flame Medical --
14 I'm sorry, with Chain Bridge Bank.
15 Q. Prior to the -- the first one
16 that Mr. Coffey had or prior to a
17 conversation that you were personally a
18 participant on?
19 A. Prior to the conversation that
20 I and Tim Coffey had with Chain Bridge
21 Bank representatives.
22 Q. Was there a call prior to that
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1 conversation that Mr. Coffey had on his
2 own with Chain Bridge Bank?
3 A. Yes, that was the initial
4 conversation that he had with Chain
5 Bridge Bank, who confirmed that they were
6 concerned with the transaction and were
7 holding the funds. They had not credited
8 the account of Blue Flame Medical.
9 Q. And so just to make sure I have
10 the chronology in my head accurately, is
11 it your testimony that it was following
12 that call that Mr. Coffey had that you
13 contacted the global security
14 investigations team?
15 A. They were contacted, yes, right
16 before the conversation we had with --
17 Tim and I had with Chain Bridge Bank.
18 Q. The global security
19 investigations team was contacted in
20 between those two conversations, after
21 Mr. Coffey spoke with Chain Bridge Bank,
22 but before you and Mr. Coffey spoke
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1 A. I don't know.
2 Q. Going back to our timeline
3 sequence of events, Mr. Korpal. I was
4 trying to get an exhaustive list of what
5 you know occurred at JPMorgan with
6 respect to this transaction prior to the
7 time JPMorgan issued the recall notice to
8 Chain Bridge Bank.
9 Do you recall anything else
10 occurring prior the recall notice being
11 sent at JPMorgan that we have not
12 discussed?
13 A. Not that I am aware of.
14 Q. Whose decision was it to issue
15 the recall notice?
16 A. It was my decision to recall --
17 to issue the recall notice based on the
18 request from Chain Bridge Bank to recall
19 the funds.
20 Q. And what is your understanding
21 as to why Chain Bridge Bank wanted
22 JPMorgan to issue a recall notice with
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1 Q. And then you write, "Call the
2 president of the bank and ask him if they
3 can tell you when the account for Blue
4 Flame was opened and do they have
5 balances like $500 million."
6 Do you see that?
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. And Mr. Coffey said, "He
9 already said this amount was out of
10 character for this client."
11 Do you know what Mr. Coffey
12 meant by "This amount is out of character
13 for this client"?
14 A. He was referring to the 456
15 million dollars for Blue Flame Medical.
16 Q. And you write, "When did they
17 open this account?"
18 Did Mr. Coffey respond to that?
19 A. He did not here in this
20 conversation on Skype.
21 Q. Okay. And he writes, "They
22 have not released the funds."
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1 And what did you understand
2 Mr. Coffey to mean when he wrote "They
3 have not released the funds"?
4 A. That the funds have not been
5 credited to the account of Blue Flame
6 Medical at Chain Bridge Bank.
7 Q. And is that something that
8 Mr. Coffey understood to be the case
9 based on representations made by Chain
10 Bridge Bank?
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. Did he have any other basis to
13 make that statement?
14 A. No.
15 Q. And the last line of the Skype
16 conversation is from Mr. Coffey. He
17 says, "Banker/Ana Pietro says 'received
18 an e-mail client and call confirming it
19 was valid.'"
20 Is that an indication that
21 Mr. Coffey received notice that the
22 JPMorgan banker and service
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1 been told by representatives of Chain
2 Bridge Bank at this point in time?
3 A. That's correct.
4 Q. In the last sentence on this
5 conversation you write, "The Blue Flame
6 Medical account was recently opened by a
7 lobbyist."
8 Do you see that?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. What is your basis for making
11 that statement?
12 A. It was, again, information that
13 was provided by Chain Bridge Bank.
14 Q. Why did you understand it could
15 be relevant that Chain Bridge Bank -- let
16 me rephrase that.
17 Why did you understand Chain
18 Bridge Bank to be telling JPMorgan that
19 the Blue Flame Medical account was opened
20 by a lobbyist?
21 MR. BURKE: Object to the form.
22 Q. You can answer.
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1 A. This was a large-value
2 transaction that was being delivered to a
3 lobbyist.
4 And we had also become aware
5 that the purpose of this transaction was
6 for personal protection equipment.
7 Q. And was the suggestion that
8 that didn't add up?
9 A. Yes.
10 MR. GUSSMAN: Keni, how can we
11 play the audio that is -- that is tab
12 10 in our binder?
13 MR. UKABIALA: I'll -- if it's a
14 new exhibit, I will add it to Exhibit
15 Share. If it's an existing exhibit, I
16 will re-upload it and share my screen
17 and play the audio file.
18 MR. GUSSMAN: Okay. Can we
19 populate it and play the first 23
20 seconds of that and stop?
21 MR. UKABIALA: And you referring
22 to the previously marked Exhibit 78?
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