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As JPMorgan Chase prepares to go to trial in a lawsuit filed against the bank by the U.S. Virgin Islands, news comes that the bank has reached a settlement in a separate lawsuit along the same lines. According to the Wall Street Journal, JPMorgan Chase paid $290 million to settle the suit.
An anonymous woman named only as Jane Doe in court filings sued the financial institution last year, claiming that the bank profited off their business relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, even as he used their banking facilities to move large sums of cash through the system. Allegations are that at least some of the money transferred into and out of Epstein’s account at the bank was used to pay his sex trafficking victims.
Jane Doe claims that she was one of the victims paid by money withdrawn from the convicted sex offender’s JPMorgan accounts, when she was abused and trafficked by Epstein.
The settlement, the terms of which remain undisclosed, is expected to compensate the unnamed woman and several other accusers who also were not identified. In a press statement announcing that an agreement had been reached, JPMorgan said that “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.”
What this settlement means for the lawsuit brought by the USVI, which is still pending, remains to be seen. The government of the Virgin Islands is claiming much the same as the Jane Doe in the now-settled lawsuit – that the bank facilitated Epstein’s crimes by maintaining the banking relationship for so many years. The bank has fired back with accusations of its own, claiming that Epstein maintained a corrupt network of local politicians who worked to ensure that even after allegations began swirling about his conduct with young women, he evaded close scrutiny from officials.
Jeffrey Epstein had numerous accounts at JPMorgan, dating back to 1998 and encompassing hundreds of millions of dollars. After JPMorgan terminated him as a client, he moved his business to Deutsche Bank, which last month settled a lawsuit against it by Epstein’s victims for $75 million.
