JPMorgan Chase has reached a temporary settlement with the sexual abuse victims of Jeffrey Epstein, the deceased financier, After weeks of confusion revealed the bank’s longstanding relationship with him, the bank and the victims’ attorneys said in a statement Monday.
David Boies, one of the main lawyers for the victims, said the bank was willing to pay $290 million to settle the lawsuit. The parties initially agreed not to disclose the settlement amount in their joint statement, as it will enter court records within the next week.
The proposed settlement would settle a lawsuit filed last November in Manhattan federal court by an unnamed woman on behalf of victims of Epstein’s sexual abuse over a period of about 15 years. years when they were teenage girls and young women, the lawsuit says. The number of victims is likely to rise to more than 100.
In the statement, the bank and the victims’ attorneys said they had reached “agreement in principle to settle” the lawsuit on behalf of the victims and that “the settlement is in the best interests of the victims.” all parties, especially the survivors. was the victim of Epstein’s horrific abuse.”
The settlement was reached about two weeks after Jamie DimonJPMorgan’s chief executive and one of Wall Street’s most famous bankers sat in on a day-long hearing in which he said he had barely heard of Mr. This financier was arrested in July 2019 on federal sex trafficking charges.
Epstein committed suicide in August 2019 in his Manhattan cell.
JPMorgan still faces a related lawsuit by the US Virgin Islands government. That lawsuit remains the most prominent one involving Epstein after years of litigation over Mr Ghislaine Maxwell’s Beliefs in 2021 in Manhattan federal court for helping Epstein engage in sex trafficking.
The lawsuit filed by the victims alleges that JPMorgan ignored repeated warnings that Epstein trafficked teenage girls and young women for sex, even after he registered as an adult. sex offender and pleaded guilty in a 2008 Florida case to soliciting prostitution of a teenage girl. . The complaint says the bank ignored warning signs in Mr. Epstein’s operations because it judged him to be a wealthy client who had access to dozens of even wealthier people.
Court documents and deposition testimony reviewed by The New York Times revealed that bankers filed multiple suspicious activity reports about Mr. Epstein repeatedly withdrawing cash in large quantities. Legal documents reveal that after designating Mr Epstein as a “high-risk client” in 2006, the bank kept him as a client despite media reports detailing allegations of abuse sexually abused his teenage girls and evidence suggests some cash was withdrawn for payment. for dozens of young women.
JPMorgan provided banking services to Mr. Epstein from about 1998 to 2013 – a period that federal authorities and victims say some of the worst was committed by the financier, who has palatial homes in Manhattan, Florida, the US Virgin Islands, New Mexico and Paris.
The bank reiterated on Monday what it had said many times before about how Mr Epstein had committed a “heinous crime” and that “any connection with him was a mistake and we IAM sorry”.
The same attorneys for Mr. Epstein’s victims negotiated a expected 75 million USD deal last month with Deutsche Bank, which succeeded JPMorgan as Mr. Epstein’s main banker. Deutsche, which ended its relationship with Mr. Epstein at the end of 2018, pay a fine of 150 million USD before New York regulators in 2020 over allegations that it failed to adequately monitor its financial transactions with the disgraced financier among other compliance errors.
The settlement with both banks required the approval of Judge Jed Rakoff of the Federal District Court in Manhattan. Judge Rakoff is also presiding over a related case by the US Virgin Islands government.
The Virgin Islands, a US territory in the Caribbean, alleges that JPMorgan must pay damages for allowing Mr. Epstein to set up a sex-trafficking operation at his private island residence off St. Thomas. But JPMorgan, in court papers, vehemently opposed the lawsuit, arguing that government officials there had been close to Mr. Epstein for nearly two decades.
Two of Mr. Epstein’s businesses get a lucrative tax break from US territory worth tens of millions of dollars. Shortly after JPMorgan ended its relationship with Mr. Epstein, the Virgin Islands approved a first small bank of its kind license for Mr. Epstein.
Judge Rakoff quickly brought the case against JPMorgan, with more than a dozens of deposits launched in the past three months, including one from Mr. Dimon and another from Albert Bryan Jr., governor of the Virgin Islands. The agreement between the JPMorgan victims and Mr. Epstein was dropped because some of the plaintiffs’ attorneys were taking testimony from James E. Staley, a former JPMorgan executive who had close relationship with Mr. Epstein.
In court filings, the Virgin Islands claimed Mr Epstein and Mr Staley shared sexually explicit emails about young women.
Mr Staley, known as Jes, has repeatedly denied in court papers of doing anything wrong or knowing that Mr. Epstein had sexually abused young women and teenage girls. JP Morgan then sued Mr. Staley seeks to ensure that, if it is determined that he has engaged in inappropriate activity, he may be held liable for damages that the bank will ultimately pay.
Victims’ attorneys were most involved in litigation and negotiating proposed settlements with the two banks including Mr. Boies, Sigrid McCawley, Brad Edwards and Brittany Henderson.
Mr. Boies said of the proposed settlement with JPMorgan, “It’s been a long, long time, but today is a great day for Jeffrey Epstein survivors.” Mr Edwards said the settlement went a long way to bringing “full justice” to many of Mr Epstein’s victims.
Ms. McCawley, who argued before Judge Rakoff that the JPMorgan case should be treated as a class action. Judge Rakoff approved the class action status on Monday.
In court papers related to the proposed settlement with Deutsche Bank, the victims’ attorneys said they expected to ask for fees of up to 30%. The attorneys are likely to file a similar fee claim in the JPMorgan case. Any fee request requires Judge Rakoff’s approval.
In the settlement with Deutsche, each victim will be entitled to any compensation between $75,000 and $5 million, according to court records.
The deals with the two banks would add to the total amount of relief that many of Epstein’s victims have received in recent years. Mr. Epstein’s estate has paid out about $150 million in restitution to more than 125 victims – many of whom may be eligible to apply for additional compensation from deals with Deutsche and JPMorgan.
The Virgin Islands, which last year secured a $105 million settlement from Mr. Epstein’s estate, said in a statement that it would “continue to conduct its enforcement action to ensure liability.” full accountability for JPMorgan’s violations of the law.”
And on Monday, the Virgin Islands filed a new round of court papers including emails from JPMorgan employees, some of which argued from 2008 that Mr. Epstein should not be retained as a client.
In July 2011, Stephen Cutler, the bank’s general counsel at the time, wrote an email to Mr Staley and others at JPMorgan: “This is not a respectable person in any way. He shouldn’t be a customer.
