JPMorgan Chase has reached a settlement with sexual abuse survivors of disgraced Hollywood financier Jeffrey Epstein, weeks after it was revealed that the biggest US bank had a longstanding relationship with him, the bank and lawyers for the survivors said in a statement on Monday. The financial services company will pay a total of $290 mn to the victims.
The settlement resolves one claim against the largest US bank in a proposed class action by women who say Epstein abused them, and by the government of the US Virgin Islands, where Epstein owned two neighbouring islands and allegedly abused survivors in his mansion.
JPMorgan Chase and Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse survivors: The lawsuit
According to a lawsuit filed in Manhatten federal court last November, JPMorgan ignored repeated warnings that Epstein was trafficking teenage girls and young women for sex. This continued even after he registered as a sex offender and pleaded guilty in a 2008 Florida case to soliciting prostitution from a teenage girl.
The lawsuit said that the bank overlooked red flags in Epstein’s activity because it valued him as a wealthy client who had access to dozens of even wealthier people.
Epstein was arrested in July 2019 on federal sex trafficking charges after it emerged that he trafficked young girls over a roughly 15-year period.
The number of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse survivors could potentially rise to more than 100.
“The parties believe this settlement is in the best interests of all parties, especially the survivors who were the victims of Epstein’s terrible abuse,” JPMorgan said.
Also watch | Jeffrey Epstein ‘Found Dead In Cell’
Epstein was a JPMorgan client from 1998 until he was dismissed in 2013.
JPMorgan kept him aboard even after his 2006 arrest on prostitution-related charges and a related guilty plea two years later.
Epstein died in August 2019 at age 66 in a Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial for sex trafficking. New York City’s medical examiner called Epstein’s death a suicide.
(With inputs from agencies)
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