JPMorgan Chase, the largest investment bank in the United States, will settle with victims of Jeffrey Epstein‘s sex trafficking operation for $290 million, according to a tentative agreement.
The victims had alleged the bank allowed Epstein, a wealthy financier and convicted pedophile who died in a New York City jail cell in 2019, to facilitate his sex trafficking operation through his accounts and connections at the bank. The precise number of victims involved in the suit remains unclear.
“The parties in Jane Doe 1 v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. have informed the Court that they have reached an agreement in principle to settle the putative class action lawsuit related to Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes, which is subject to court approval,” the bank said in a statement on Monday.
The bank did not admit any wrongdoing in connection to Epstein, and CEO Jamie Dimon has testified that the bank was in the dark about Epstein’s misdeeds.
“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,” the statement from the bank continued.
The financial institution has been accused of giving special treatment to Epstein to do business with wealthy individuals in the deceased sexual predator’s orbit. According to some reports, multiple bank officials visited Epstein in the years following his first sex offense conviction in 2008.
Mary Erdoes, a senior lieutenant to veteran JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, visited Epstein’s townhouse on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in 2011 and 2013, unnamed people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal. Erdoes communicated with Epstein via email about a charitable fund JPMorgan Chase was seeking to launch.
John Duffy, who formerly led JPMorgan Chase’s private bank, reportedly visited the townhouse in 2013 for a meeting; despite multiple warnings from compliance officers, the company renewed an authorization one month later, permitting Epstein to borrow funds against his account. Justin Nelson, a banker who worked with Epstein at JPMorgan Chase, traveled to a New Mexico ranch owned by the pedophile in 2016 and participated in a handful of meetings at the Manhattan townhouse between 2014 and 2017.
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JPMorgan Chase added in its Monday statement that it regretted any association with Epstein.
“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.
JPMorgan is facing a similar lawsuit in the Virgin Islands, where it is also under fire over its relationship with Epstein. That trial is set to begin in October.
Previously, Deutsche Bank, another bank accused of ambivalence to Epstein’s sex trafficking operation, settled with several individuals who said they were victims of Epstein’s crimes and other women for $75 million.