JPMorgan Chase has agreed to resolve accusations made by victims of Jeffrey Epstein that the bank ignored the deceased financier’s sex trafficking and abuse in order to profit from a financial relationship with him.
The lawsuit, filed in November by an unnamed Epstein victim on behalf of herself and other victims, claimed that Epstein would not have been able to conduct his sex-trafficking enterprise without JPMorgan’s assistance.
The amount of the settlement was not disclosed in the statement, which was published jointly by JPMorgan and a counsel for Epstein’s victims. However, according to a source familiar with the situation, JPMorgan will pay $290 million to resolve the claim.
Litigation against JPMorgan Chase continues continuing in a related complaint brought in the US Virgin Islands, which also alleges that the bank ignored evidence of human trafficking to profit from its business with Epstein.
According to the lawsuit, JPMorgan loaned money to Epstein and enabled him to withdraw substantial sums of cash on a regular basis from 1998 until August 2013, despite knowing about his sex-trafficking activities. According to a copy of the recorded deposition released last month, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said that he had never heard of Epstein or his crimes until the financier was arrested in 2019.
“We are sorry”
JPMorgan said in an email to CBS MoneyWatch that Epstein’s actions were “monstrous.”
“Any association with him was a mistake and we regret it,” it said. “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.”
It added, “[W]e 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’s payout comes just a few months after Deutsche Bank agreed to pay $75 million to resolve a lawsuit alleging that the German bank “knowingly benefited” from Epstein’s sex trafficking by conducting business with him.