JPMorgan Chase has settled this Monday through a provisional agreement a class action lawsuit that accused him of knowingly benefiting from the economic movements derived from the sex trafficking plot of his former client Jeffrey Epstein, who committed suicide in August 2019 in a cell of a federal prison in New York while awaiting trial. The financier had been arrested a month earlier for sex trafficking and child abuse.
If approved, the deal will ease some of the pressure on JPMorgan, which is accused of ignoring repeated warnings about the crimes of serial pedophile Epstein, whom the bank had as a client between 1998 and 2013, when his court troubles surfaced. In addition to the US bank, another woman represented by the same team of lawyers sued Deutsche Bank at the same time. The German bank, which became Epstein’s main financial institution after JPMorgan cut ties with him, agreed to settle his lawsuit in May for $75 million.
“We all now understand that Epstein’s behavior was monstrous, and we believe this settlement is in the best interest of all parties, especially the survivors, who suffered unimaginable abuse at the hands of this man,” the bank, based in London, said. in New York, in a statement. “Any association with him was a mistake and we are sorry. We would never have continued to do business with him if we believed he was using our bank in some way to commit heinous crimes.”
The claim of the victim, a woman whose identity has not been revealed and whom, like the Deutsche Bank plaintiff, the indictment calls jane doe – the usual name given by the US courts to anonymous whistleblowers – was based on the fact that JPMorgan ignored the red flags surrounding Epstein, because it valued him as a wealthy and influential client who could provide him with even wealthier clients. According to The New York Times, JPMorgan employees had filed several “suspicious activity” reports about Epstein’s repeated large withdrawals of money, allegedly for the payment of compensation to victims and the movement of the same between his properties. Epstein would have moved hundreds of millions of dollars through at least 55 accounts, the Bloomberg agency points out. However, the bank kept him as a client until 2013 despite having been considered a “high-risk client” in 2006.
The provisional agreement was reached two weeks after Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan, testified on the matter. In a day-long hearing in Manhattan federal court last November, Dimon said he had barely heard of Epstein before the financier’s arrest in July 2019.
The tentative settlement does not end JPMorgan’s legal headaches over its ties to Epstein. He is still facing a lawsuit from the US Virgin Islands, where the financier had a mansion where he brought several of his victims. The bank is also suing former private banking chief Jes Staley, whom the bank holds liable for damages he must be forced to pay because of his ties to Epstein. Staley has denied any wrongdoing.
“Taken together or individually, the historic reparations from the banks that provided financial services to Jeffrey Epstein speak for themselves,” said David Boies, one of the prosecution’s attorneys. “It has taken a long time – too long – but today is a great day for the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein, and a great day for justice.” Boies said JPMorgan asked that the amount of the deal not be disclosed, and “pending further discussions we will honor that request.”
Regarding the Virgin Islands lawsuit, its authorities maintain that the bank must pay damages for allowing Epstein to establish a base of operations for his sex trafficking scheme on his private island, off St. Thomas. The bank has responded in its lawsuits that the authorities of the Virgin Islands did not seem to care about Epstein’s presence for almost two decades in their territory.
“We are pleased to learn of the settlement that will provide the victims of Jeffrey Epstein with compensation for the role played by JPMorgan Chase in facilitating the crimes committed against them,” a spokesman for the Virgin Islands Attorney General said Monday. The territory will press ahead with its case against the bank to prevent it from “aiding and profiting from human trafficking in the future,” he said.
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