JPMorgan Chase Will Pay $290m To Epstein’s Victims In Settlement
According to the accusers’ attorney, JPMorgan Chase has agreed to pay $290 million to settle a class action lawsuit filed by victims of Jeffrey Epstein‘s sex trafficking network.
In the initial case, JPMorgan was charged with providing financial services that permitted Epstein’s abuse while disregarded warning signs in order to benefit from a wealthy customer.
While claiming that it cut Epstein off when it discovered misconduct, JPMorgan has claimed that Epstein is to accountable for the horrors.
The settlement was announced by the two parties early on Monday, with a statement that it “is in the best interests of all parties, especially the survivors who were the victims of Epstein’s terrible abuse.”
David Boies, the lawyer for the plaintiffs, later made the $290 million sum public through a spokesperson.
The resolution, which is pending court approval, follows a separate settlement with Deutsche Bank, which was announced in May. In that deal, the European institution agreed to pay $75 million to end the victim’s legal action.
The lawsuits have made Wall Street institutions take responsibility for their part in the Epstein affair, which resulted in his ignominious death in prison in 2019.
The announcement of the most recent agreement coincided with the day when US District Judge Jed Rakoff certified the claims as a class action after plaintiff Jane Doe 1 filed them “individually and on behalf of others similarly situated.”
Rakoff came to the conclusion that the case otherwise satisfied the qualifications and that Jane Doe 1’s fellow victims were numerous enough to qualify as a class in a 30-page order on Monday.
The plaintiffs claim that JPMorgan sponsored Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking business while it knew or should have known that business was operating. This claim is at the center of the case, according to Rakoff.
We are sorry.
The accord was praised as a step towards justice by the legal firm Boies Schiller Flexner, which represented plaintiffs in the JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank cases.
“The settlements that have been reached are both life-changing and historic for the survivors,” asserted lawyer Sigrid McCawley, a partner at Boies Schiller Flexner.
“Money that for far too long flowed freely between Jeffrey Epstein’s international sex trafficking organization and the top Wall Street banks is unquestionably being used for good. The settlements show that financial institutions are crucial in identifying and combating sex trafficking.
JPMorgan Chase stated once more that it regretted working with Epstein.
A bank spokeswoman remarked, “We all now realize that Epstein’s behavior was horrific.
“We regret any connection to him that may have existed. If we had known he was using our bank to aid in horrible acts, we would never have done business with him again.”
Epstein joined JPMorgan in 1998 to start providing banking services, and he wasn’t fired until 2013.
Plaintiffs claimed that JPMorgan knew about or should have known that it was helping a sexual predator as early as 2006, yet the bank continued to do business with wealthy Epstein far after that time.
During his deposition, Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, was questioned about when senior executives learned of Epstein’s behavior and why he wasn’t terminated sooner.
Jes Staley, a former CEO, has received criticism from JPMorgan for continuing his friendship with Epstein. According to a joint statement released on Monday, court cases involving the bank and Staley as well as JPMorgan and the US Virgin Islands are still pending.
A second round of testimony from Dimon was requested by the victims’ lawyers on Friday. They claimed that the bank had “strategically withheld” information before Dimon’s May 26, 2023 deposition, which made it difficult for them to confront Dimon.
Epstein received a secret plea agreement and was sentenced to just 13 months in prison after being found guilty in Florida in 2008 of bribing teenage females for massages.
In August 2019, at the age of 66, he committed suicide in a New York jail cell while still in custody on charges of trafficking minor females for sex.
