Victims of Jeffrey Epstein have requested a judge give preliminary approval to the $290 million settlement offer from JPMorgan Chase to resolve claims that the investment bank knowingly facilitated the billionaire’s abuse of women by facilitating his financial transactions.
In a filing Thursday night in Manhattan federal court, lawyers for the victims called the all-cash settlement proposal “fair, adequate, [and] reasonable,” given the risks of litigating the matter further and the continued denial of involvement by the bank of any involvement in Epstein’s sex-trafficking operations.
The settlement will apply to women who were abused or trafficked by Epstein between Jan 1st 1998 through to the billionaire’s death on Aug 10th, 2019, when he reportedly committed suicide in a Manhattan jail cell. The proposal will require the approval of US District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan.
Epstein was a client of JPMorgan between 1998 and 2013, when his accounts were terminated by the bank.
The lawsuit, by a former ballet dancer who was named as Jane Doe 1, alleged that the bank ignored red flags regarding Epstein’s abuses, facilitated his activities through handling his financial transactions, and remained in touch with him long after his banking services had been terminated.
For its part, JPMorgan issued a statement saying, any association with Epstein “was a mistake and we regret it”.
The bank continued, “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.”
Court records show that the victim’s lawyers will seek to take as much as 30% of the award for legal fees. The lawyers also represented the victims in a similar lawsuit against Deutsche Bank, which also serviced Epstein’s financial needs, and which settled its case for $75 million. That settlement was granted preliminary approval by Rakoff on June 16th.
Both banks had continued to service Epstein as a client for years following his guilty plea in 2008 for soliciting a minor for prostitution, after which he was forced to register as a sex offender.
It was alleged by JPMorgan that Jane Doe 1 was also sexually abused by Jes Staley, a former chief of private banking who was close friends with Epstein, who left JPMorgan in 2013, and who served as chief executive at Barclays’ between 2015 and 2021.
JPMorgan faces another lawsuit over the Epstein matter, brought by the US Virgin Islands, where Epstein resided on one of two islands he owned there.
Meanwhile the bank is suing Staley, blaming him for its legal predicament and seeking to force him to cover its losses in the lawsuit by Epstein’s victims, and the class action case, as well as force him to return eight years of compensation.
The case details are Doe 1 v JPMorgan Chase Bank NA, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 22-10019.
