new york –
The U.S. Virgin Islands is committing at least $100 million to settle a lawsuit filed by JPMorgan Chase against the largest U.S. bank for ignoring the sex trafficking of the late, disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. He said he wanted a payment of US$90 million, possibly more.
In Friday’s filing in federal court in Manhattan, the borough is seeking to pay JP Morgan $150 million in civil penalties and waive at least $40 million from its 15-year relationship with Epstein. Stated.
It also wants JP Morgan to compensate Epstein’s victims, pay punitive damages, separate its business and compliance functions, and hire compliance consultants.
“The fines and change in conduct are important to make JPMorgan Chase aware of the costs of putting its own interests ahead of public safety,” Virgin Islands Attorney General Ariel Smith said in a statement. Stated.
In a statement, JPMorgan acknowledged efforts to resolve the lawsuit, but said the motion “does not reflect the nature of settlement discussions.”
The bank also said its U.S. Virgin Islands claim for damages was “misguided” and “not well-founded.”
Friday’s filing is the first time the U.S. Virgin Islands has put dollar figures in a lawsuit.
The borough told JP Morgan that it provided banking services to Mr. Epstein from 1998 to 2013, enabled him to pay victims, and sent internal warnings and other red flags for rating Mr. Epstein as a wealthy client. They are demanding that they be held accountable for their neglect.
The newspaper said the $40 million sum also included the “difficult to quantify” value of Epstein’s alleged introduction of JPMorgan to celebrities such as Britain’s Prince Andrew and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. said no.
Epstein, who died by suicide in August 2019, owns two adjacent islands in his territory, one of which is spied on by people when authorities sexually abuse young women and girls. The authorities announced that they purchased it to prevent
A trial is scheduled for October 23.
large payment
The lawsuit is the largest unsolved case involving Epstein.
Last month, JP Morgan agreed to pay $290 million to settle lawsuits filed by dozens of Epstein defendants, and Deutsche Bank, of which Epstein was also a client, agreed to a $75 million settlement in May. Both agreements are pending final court approval.
Meanwhile, Epstein’s estate has paid more than $125 million to Epstein’s whistleblowers and more than $105 million to the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The financier’s ex-girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, was found guilty in December 2021 of aiding his abuse.
In the U.S. Virgin Islands case, JP Morgan has sought a shift of blame.
The borough has offered Epstein tax incentives and exemptions from sex offender surveillance obligations in exchange for cash and gifts to local police and government officials such as former First Lady Cecil de Jong. and criticized it for “proactively seeking convenience.”
JPMorgan is separately suing Jess Staley, a former head of private and investment banking and a close friend of Epstein, for damages in the two lawsuits it faces.
Staley has expressed regret over his friendship with Epstein and repeatedly denied knowing about sex trafficking. He left JPMorgan a few months after Epstein and was chief executive of British bank Barclays from 2015 to 2021.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel, New York; Added Reporting by Nupur Anand and Luc Cohen, New York.Editor Jonathan Ortiz and Deepa Babington)
