JPMorgan Chase introduced a tentative $290 million 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 expenses accusing him of paying underage ladies for massages after which molesting them at his houses in Florida and New York. He was discovered lifeless in jail in August of that yr, at age 66. A health worker dominated his loss of life a suicide.
The lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal courtroom in November sought to carry JPMorgan financially answerable for Epstein’s decades-long abuse of teenage ladies and younger ladies. A associated lawsuit has been filed within the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The proposed settlement comes roughly two weeks after JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon testified in a deposition for the case, the place he denied figuring out about Epstein and his crimes till the financier was arrested in 2019, based on a transcript of the videotaped deposition launched final month.
“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.
The proposed settlement, which should nonetheless be accepted by the decide within the case, totals $290 million, based on lead plaintiff legal professional David Boies.
According to the lawsuits, JPMorgan supplied Epstein loans and frequently allowed him to withdraw giant sums of money from 1998 by August 2013 despite the fact that it was conscious of his participation in intercourse trafficking. The nameless sufferer within the go well with, known as Jane Doe, stated she was sexually abused by Epstein from 2006 and 2013.
Also on Monday, a decide dominated in favor of constructing Doe’s lawsuit right into a class-action lawsuit for all victims of Epstein’s intercourse crimes.
“Money, which for far too long flowed with impunity between Jeffrey Epstein’s global sex trafficking enterprise and Wall Street’s leading banks, is decisively being used for good,” stated Sigrid McCawley, an legal professional for Jane Doe and different Epstein victims, in a ready assertion.
“The settlements signal that financial institutions have an important role to play in spotting and shutting down sex trafficking.”
The financial institution continued to rely Epstein as a shopper even if he was arrested and pled responsible in 2008 to intercourse crimes in Florida.
“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.”
Lawsuits are nonetheless pending between the U.S. Virgin Islands and JPMorgan Chase, and the financial institution continues to be pursuing its lawsuit towards JPMorgan former govt Jes Staley.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”