JPMorgan To Pay $75 Million To Settle Lawsuit Over Alleged Jeffrey Epstein Ties

JPMorgan Chase has agreed a settlement with the US Virgin Islands over a lawsuit that alleges that the bank facilitated Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking crimes.

Confirming the $75 million settlement in a statement on Tuesday, JPMorgan said that it was not admitting any liability in the deal, but that it “deeply regrets any association” with Epstein.

The Mail Online reports: The settlement includes $30 million that will go towards US Virgin Islands charity groups that work to combat sex trafficking, $25 million to the territory’s government to fund law enforcement, and $20 million in attorneys fees.

The territory had sued JPMorgan for at least $190 million, saying the bank ignored red flags about convicted sex offender Epstein because he was a wealthy and lucrative client from 1998 to 2013.

The settlement, which must be approved by a judge, concludes the final major legal case tied to Epstein’s abuses of women and girls, a scandal that embroiled some of the world’s most powerful figures in finance and business.

JPMorgan also agreed in June to pay out $290 million to resolve a separate suit brought by the predator’s victims. 

In separate case, Apollo Global Management co-founder Leon Black paid $62.5 million to the US Virgin Islands in July to avoid any legal claims tied to Epstein. 

JPMorgan is the largest bank in the US, with roughly $3.7 trillion in assets, and has a market capitalization of about $422 billion. 

The bank’s stock was down less than one percent after the USVI settlement was announced on Tuesday.

The settlement resolves a difficult public relations problem for Jamie Dimon, who has been JPMorgan’s CEO since 2006.

Dimon testified under oath in May that he had barely heard of Epstein until the financier’s July 2019 arrest, and did not recall any conversations about Epstein with top lieutenants.

Epstein died in August 2019 in a Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial on federal charges of sex trafficking dozens of women and girls as young as 14. New York City’s medical examiner called his death a suicide. 

JPMorgan said in a statement that the settlement with USVI is ‘in the best interest of all parties, particularly for those who can benefit from efforts to combat human trafficking, and for survivors who suffer unimaginable abuse at the hands of these criminals.’ 

‘The firm deeply regrets any association with this man, and would never have continued doing business with him if it believed he was using the bank in any way to commit his heinous crimes,’ JPMorgan said.