By MICHELLE CHAPMAN (AP Business Writer)
JPMorgan Chase has reached a settlement in a category motion lawsuit with victims of financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Epstein was arrested in 2019 on federal prices accusing him of paying underage women tons of of {dollars} in money for massages after which molesting them at his properties in Florida and New York. He was discovered lifeless in jail on Aug. 10 of that yr, at age 66. A health worker dominated his loss of life a suicide.
The lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court docket in November sought to carry JPMorgan financially answerable for Epstein’s decades-long abuse of teenage women and younger girls. A associated lawsuit has been filed within the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Terms of the settlement weren’t disclosed.
“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 mentioned in a written assertion early Monday.
Litigation remains to be pending between the U.S. Virgin Islands and JPMorgan Chase, in addition to JPMorgan Chase’s claims towards former govt, Jes Staley.
According to the lawsuits, JPMorgan offered Epstein loans and usually allowed him to withdraw massive sums of money from 1998 by way of August 2013 regardless that it knew about his intercourse trafficking practices.
“Any association with him was a mistake and we regret it,” the financial institution mentioned 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.”
Both lawsuits had 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.
The financial institution has denied the allegations and sued Staley, saying he hid Epstein’s crimes to maintain him as a shopper.
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has testified that he by no means heard of Epstein and his crimes till the financier was arrested in 2019, in accordance with a transcript of the videotaped deposition launched final month.
The settlement is topic to court docket approval.
Shares of JPMorgan rose barely earlier than the market open.
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AP Writer Michael Hill contributed to this report from Albany.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”