The U.S. government Virgin Islands in one court Friday’s filing estimates that it will seek damages of at least $190 million from JPMorgan Chase in one lawsuit accusing big banks of facilitating sex sold by its old longtime customers Jeffrey Epstein.
The Virgin Islands also said it wanted an order requiring JPMorgan to take a series of steps to protect women and girls from other predators in the future.
“These sets of recommendations aim to address the same core problem: JPMorgan’s knowledge of
and did not report Epstein’s trafficking because it lacked motivation and economic incentive
puts obeying the law and preventing human trafficking above its own profits,” the filing with the United States District Court in Manhattan said.
The US territory also said it would seek additional special damages for Epstein’s victims in addition to the nearly $300 million that JPMorgan agreed to pay victims last month to settle. the lawsuit of one of his accusers. The filing did not give an amount for those additional damages.
The new filing comes in response to Judge Jed Rakoff’s request last week that the territory detail the damages it seeks in the case as it advances to a trial scheduled for October 23.
The Virgin Islands lawsuit alleges JPMorgan benefited from Epstein trafficking young women to be abused by him and others during the 15 years he was a client of the largest bank in the United States.
The complaint alleges JPMorgan allowed Epstein to keep multiple multi-million dollar accounts at the bank that he used to finance his trafficking of women, despite numerous red flags about him being circulated by employees. banks raised for many years.
JPMorgan, which had no immediate comment on Friday, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in the case.
“We are pursuing this enforcement action because the institutional failure of JPMorgan Chase enabled Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking and JPMorgan Chase to make significant changes to detect, reporting and preventing human trafficking,” US Virgin Islands Attorney General Ariel Smith said in a statement Friday.
“Financial penalties, as well as behavioral changes, are critical to ensuring that JPMorgan Chase knows the cost of putting its profits above public safety,” Smith said.
She said that if the Virgin Islands wins the case, they will use the damages they receive “to support efforts to strengthen, inform and expand local law enforcement and raise enhance Virgin Islands services to victims of human trafficking and other crime victims.”
The filing says the Virgin Islands want at least $150 million in civil fines. The filing also says it wants JPMorgan to pay at least another $40 million in fees Epstein generated for the bank, and that JPMorgan received from “multiple ultra-high net worth clients” he referred to the bank. row.
The filing says those customers include Google co-founder Serge Brin, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Lex Wexner, Limited Brands founder and billionaire Glenn Dubin.
In addition to the monetary damages, the Virgin Islands also required JPMorgan to “force to implement new policies, including separating business and compliance functions, and appointing an independent compliance consultant.” , to prevent human trafficking,” according to a press release from Smit’s office. .
JPMorgan in its own court filing accused the Virgin Islands themselves of being “complicit in Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes.”
The bank alleges Epstein gave high-ranking officials there money, advice and favors in exchange for him turning his face away when he trafficked young women to be abused there.
Epstein has a residence on a private island in the territory, where accusers say he and others sexually abused them.
Last month in the same court where the Virgin Islands is suing the bank JPMorgan agreed, not admitting wrongdoing, to pay $290 million to Epstein’s victims to settle a lawsuit by one of his accusers.
In the May, Deutsche Bank agreed to pay Epstein’s victims $75 million to settle a separate lawsuit by an accuser who alleged that the latter abetted his sex trafficking of her and others. Deutsche Bank took on Epstein as a client after JPMorgan cut ties with him in 2013, years after the banker first expressed concerns about him.
Deutsche Bank previously agreed to pay the New York State Department of Financial Services a $150 million fine for failing to detect or prevent millions of dollars in suspicious transactions involving Epstein, including “several payments.” accounting for Russian models and many women with Eastern European surnames”. Virgin Islands filing on Friday is noted.
Epstein, who was friends with former Presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, as well as Prince Andrew of the United Kingdom, pleaded guilty in 2008 to a Florida state of soliciting an underage girl. . He served 13 months in prison, but spent most of that time commuting to work every day.
Epstein, then 66 years old, committed suicide in a federal prison in New York in August 2019, a month after he was arrested on federal child sex trafficking charges.
