JPMorgan reaches settlement with victims of Jeffrey Epstein, deceased financier charged with sex trafficking
JPMorgan Chase introduced a settlement Monday with the victims of Jeffrey Epstein who had accused the financial institution of being the monetary conduit that allowed the financier to proceed working a intercourse trafficking operation.
Epstein was arrested in 2019 on federal prices accusing him of paying underage ladies a whole bunch of {dollars} in money for massages after which molesting them at his properties in Florida and New York. He was discovered useless in jail on Aug. 10 of that 12 months, at age 66. A medical expert dominated his demise a suicide.
The lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal courtroom in November sought to carry JPMorgan financially chargeable for Epstein’s decades-long abuse of teenage ladies and younger girls. A associated lawsuit has been filed within the U.S. Virgin Islands.
“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,” JPMorgan Chase stated in a written assertion early Monday.
According to the lawsuits, JPMorgan offered Epstein loans and recurrently allowed him to withdraw massive sums of money from 1998 by August 2013 although it was conscious of his participation in intercourse trafficking. The nameless sufferer, known as Jane Doe, stated she was sexually abused by Epstein from 2006 and 2013.
The financial institution continued to rely Epstein as a shopper although Epstein was arrested and pled responsible to intercourse crimes in 2008 in Florida.
The settlement with Jane Doe arrives on the identical day {that a} choose granted Doe’s lawsuit class-action standing, which means future awards could be granted to Doe and different victims.
“Any association with him was a mistake and we regret it,” the financial institution stated in a ready assertion. “We would never have continued to do business with him if we believed he was using our bank in any way to help commit heinous crimes.”
The settlement comes roughly two weeks after JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon testified in a deposition for the case, the place he denied realizing about Epstein and his crimes till the financier was arrested in 2019, in accordance with a transcript of the videotaped deposition launched final month.
Both lawsuits have been filed after New York state in November enacted a brief legislation letting grownup victims of sexual abuse to sue others for the abuse they suffered, even when the abuse occurred way back.
Terms of the settlement weren’t disclosed. Lawsuits are nonetheless pending between the U.S. Virgin Islands and JPMorgan Chase, and the financial institution continues to be pursuing its lawsuit in opposition to JPMorgan former government Jes Staley.
The financial institution has denied the allegations and sued Staley, saying he hid Epstein’s crimes to maintain him as a shopper. Staley left JPMorgan in 2013 to later grow to be CEO of the British financial institution Barclays. Staley stepped down from that position in 2021 on account of his prior relationship with Epstein.
—
AP Writer Michael Hill contributed to this report from Albany
