JPMorgan Chase settles lawsuit with victims of Epstein

JPMorgan Chase reached a settlement with victims of Jeffrey Epstein on Monday and agreed to pay $290 million to settle the lawsuit over its ties to the convicted sex offender, according to media reports.

More than 100 women who were victims of Epstein could receive payment, Reuters reported.

The settlement came after months of disclosures that the financial services giant gave Epstein loans while disregarding internal alerts and overlooking warning signs regarding the financier, due to his status as a valuable client.

Despite being arrested in 2006 on charges related to prostitution and having pleaded guilty two years later, Epstein remained a client of JPMorgan from 1998 to 2013, Reuters reported. Epstein died in prison in 2019 after he was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges.

"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 said in a statement Monday morning.

"Any association with him was a mistake and we regret it. 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," the bank said.

Monday's settlement is a result of claims filed last year by an unnamed woman using the pseudonym "Jane Doe 1", who said that the bank was aware of and profited from Epstein's sex trafficking activities.

Jane Doe 1 filed the lawsuit on behalf of a "large number" of Epstein victims.

US District Court Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan, who oversaw the case, ruled Monday morning that it could move forward as a class-action lawsuit.

The lawsuit forced JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon to provide a deposition to the victim's legal team. It also led the bank to take action by filing a lawsuit against Jes Staley, a former high-ranking executive, for actively facilitating Epstein's connection with the institution and deliberately concealing what he knew about his former friend.

Dimon said in his deposition last month that he had never discussed Epstein or his accounts. Staley was deposed over the weekend.

JPMorgan tried to limit the class-action suit, claiming it couldn't have known about allegations against Epstein before they became public knowledge through news reports and criminal charges.

However, Rakoff said that the bank's internal monitors had raised concerns about potential crimes. The bank's count of victims was limited to those abused by Epstein in or after 2007, but evidence, including suspicious activity reports from 2002, indicated that JPMorgan may have had prior knowledge of the sex trafficking operation, according to NPR.

"Several pieces of evidence ... suggest that JP Morgan either knew or should have known that Epstein conducted a sex-trafficking venture long before 2006," Rakoff wrote Monday.

"JP Morgan filed multiple suspicious activity reports related to Epstein's accounts in 2002," Rakoff added, indicating that the bank either had suspicions or outright knowledge of Epstein's involvement in a sex trafficking ring, a crime for which Epstein and his partner Ghislaine Maxwell were both implicated.

JPMorgan's lawsuit is one of several filed against banks that had maintained a financial relationship with Epstein, despite the revelation in 2006 that he was utilizing his wealth to exploit minors and young women.

Last month, Deutsche Bank, where Epstein became a client after he was forced out by JPMorgan in 2013, reached a settlement of $75 million with Epstein's victims in a similar case, NPR reported.

JPMorgan is also facing a lawsuit by the government of the US Virgin Islands, where Epstein owned two neighboring islands and was suspected of abusing victims in his mansion, Reuters reported. The lawsuit is scheduled to proceed to trial in October and aims to seek monetary damages.