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JPMorgan Chase stated Tuesday it would pay $75 million to settle a lawsuit by the U.S. Virgin Islands alleging that the massive American financial institution facilitated and benefited from intercourse trafficking of younger girls by its longtime buyer Jeffrey Epstein.
JPMorgan didn’t admit any wrongdoing within the settlement, which is able to give $55 million to Virgin Islands charities and the American territory’s anti-trafficking efforts.
The remaining $20 million will cowl attorneys’ charges incurred by the Virgin Islands as a part of the litigation in federal court docket in New York.
The Virgin Islands stated the deal “consists of a number of substantial commitments by JPMorgan Chase to establish, report, and reduce off assist for potential human trafficking, together with establishing and implementing complete insurance policies and procedures.”
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell attend de Grisogono Sponsors The 2005 Wall Road Live performance Collection Benefitting Wall Road Rising, with a Efficiency by Rod Stewart at Cipriani Wall Road on March 15, 2005 in New York Metropolis.
Joe Schildhorn | Patrick McMullan | Getty Pictures
The territory stated that $10 million of the cash obtained can be used to create a fund to offer psychological well being providers for Epstein’s victims.
JPMorgan additionally stated Tuesday that it had reached a settlement with Jes Staley, a former government on the financial institution who had been associates with Epstein, to resolve claims by JPMorgan that he was chargeable for any civil damages and prices related to Epstein-related litigation.
The phrases of the settlement with Staley are confidential.
JPMorgan stated that it “deeply regrets” its affiliation with Epstein, who was a shopper from 1998 till 2013.
Virgin Islands Legal professional Common Ariel Smith stated the settlement settles what was the primary enforcement motion towards a financial institution for facilitating and benefiting from human trafficking.
“As a part of the settlement, JPMorgan has agreed to implement and preserve significant anti-trafficking measures, which is able to assist forestall human trafficking sooner or later,” Smith stated in a press release.
“This settlement is an historic victory for survivors and for state enforcement, and it ought to sound the alarm on Wall Road about banks’ duties beneath the regulation to detect and stop human trafficking.”
Jes Staley, former chief government officer of Barclays Plc, arrives on the places of work of Boies Schiller Flexner LLP in New York, US, on Sunday, June 11, 2023. Staley has confronted his first day of testimony about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein as a part of lawsuits alleging the financial institution enabled the late financier’s sex-trafficking. Photographer: Stephanie Keith/Bloomberg by way of Getty Pictures
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Pictures
The offers come months after a separate $290 million settlement by JPMorgan with victims of the now-dead predator. That earlier deal ended the same lawsuit by a type of victims in U.S. District Court docket in Manhattan.
As with that prior settlement, the brand new pacts let the financial institution keep away from a trial on the Virgin Islands’ allegations in that very same court docket, which was as a result of begin Oct. 23.
The territory had stated it might ask jurors at that trial to award it no less than $190 million in damages from JPMorgan.
The Virgin Islands beforehand obtained a $105 million settlement from Epstein’s property, and one other $62.5 million from billionaire investor Leon Black to resolve potential claims associated to Epstein.
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon and different high financial institution executives had been questioned by legal professionals for the Virgin Islands as a part of its swimsuit towards the agency.
Associated court docket filings and hearings have led to a stream of embarrassing headlines concerning the financial institution because the case was filed in late 2022, greater than three years after Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail following his arrest on federal youngster intercourse trafficking prices.
The Virgin Islands claimed JPMorgan successfully ignored repeated purple flags that Epstein was trafficking girls to his personal island within the territory as a result of it needed to retain his enterprise and that of his rich and highly effective associates.
Amongst these purple flags was Epstein’s 2008 responsible plea in Florida to a state cost of soliciting intercourse from an underage lady, a conviction that led to a 13-month jail stint.
In late August, a JPMorgan lawyer instructed Choose Jed Rakoff that after Epstein died, the financial institution notified the Treasury Division that it since had recognized greater than $1 billion in transactions associated to “human trafficking” by him courting again 16 years.
However the financial institution additionally had alleged in court docket filings that the Virgin Islands was complicit in Epstein’s crimes, saying he gave high-ranking territory officers cash, recommendation, and favors in trade for his or her permitting him to traffick girls there unhindered.
In a press launch saying the brand new settlement with the Virgin Islands, JPMorgan stated it “believes this settlement is in the very best curiosity of all events, notably for individuals who can profit from efforts to fight human trafficking, and for survivors who are suffering unimaginable abuse by the hands of those criminals.”
“Whereas the settlement doesn’t contain admissions of legal responsibility, the agency deeply regrets any affiliation with this man, and would by no means have continued doing enterprise with him if it believed he was utilizing the financial institution in any approach to commit his heinous crimes,” the assertion stated.
“The agency will proceed to work with regulation enforcement to fight human trafficking and assist to establish improper cash motion into the worldwide funds techniques.”
JPMorgan stated that beneath the deal it would pay $25 million to the Virgin Islands “to boost the infrastructure and capabilities of regulation enforcement to stop and fight human trafficking and different crimes of their territories.”
The financial institution stated it would pay one other $30 million “to assist USVI charitable organizations whose work is geared toward addressing social ills, together with preventing human trafficking and different intercourse crimes, and to assist survivors on their paths to therapeutic.”
With the remaining cash going to attorneys’ charges, JPMorgan is paying the identical quantity, $75 million, that Deutsche Financial institution agreed to pay Epstein victims to settle a 3rd Manhattan federal court docket lawsuit that alleged that financial institution facilitated his intercourse trafficking when he was a buyer from 2013 via 2018.
Deutsche Financial institution had taken on Epstein as a buyer after JPMorgan ended its relationship with him when Staley left the financial institution.
Epstein for years socialized with high-profile individuals resembling former President Donald Trump and Invoice Clinton, Britain’s Prince Andrew, and had enterprise relationships with billionaires resembling Black and former L. Manufacturers CEO Les Wexner.
Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite who as soon as was Epstein’s girlfriend, was convicted at a federal legal trial in Manhattan in December 2021 of procuring underage women to be sexually abused by him.
Maxwell later was sentenced to twenty years in jail.
Staley, the previous JPMorgan government has denied claims of wrongdoing, together with an allegation that he sexually assaulted a girl recognized as “Jane Doe,” whose class motion swimsuit led to the prior settlement with the financial institution.
In November 2021, Staley stepped down as CEO of Barclays after an investigation by British financial institution regulators into how he had characterised his relationship with Epstein.
That is breaking information. Test again for updates.
