NEW YORK, June 12 (Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N) agreed to pay about $290 million to settle a category motion lawsuit by victims of Jeffrey Epstein, an individual acquainted with the matter mentioned, resolving a big a part of litigation over the financial institution’s relationship with the disgraced financier.
The most important U.S. financial institution mentioned on Monday in a joint assertion with the attorneys for the lady who sued JPMorgan Chase that it had agreed in precept to settle the category motion lawsuit.
JPMorgan Chase didn’t admit wrongdoing in agreeing to settle in line with the individual acquainted, who spoke on situation of anonymity.
“Any affiliation with him (Epstein) was a mistake and we remorse it,” JPMorgan mentioned. “We’d by no means have continued to do enterprise with him if we believed he was utilizing our financial institution in any approach to assist commit heinous crimes.”
The financial institution remains to be dealing with a lawsuit by the federal government of the U.S. Virgin Islands, the place Epstein owned two neighboring islands and was suspected of abusing victims in his mansion.
The proposed class motion lawsuit mentioned JPMorgan ignored inside warnings about Epstein’s sexual abuses of ladies and younger ladies.
JPMorgan saved Epstein as a consumer of the financial institution from 1998 till he was dropped in 2013 even after his 2006 arrest on prostitution-related costs and a associated responsible plea two years later.
JPMorgan’s litigation in opposition to its former government Jes Staley, who it accuses of concealing what he knew about Epstein, is continuous.
Staley has mentioned he regretted befriending Epstein, however denied realizing about his intercourse trafficking. His attorneys didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon Monday.
DEUTSCHE BANK SETTLED SIMILAR CASE
Deutsche Financial institution, the place Epstein was a consumer from 2013 to 2018, final month agreed to pay $75 million to settle an analogous lawsuit by ladies who mentioned they had been trafficked by Epstein.
“The settlements sign that monetary establishments have an essential function to play in recognizing and shutting down intercourse trafficking,” Sigrid McCawley, a lawyer for the lady generally known as Jane Doe 1 who sued JPMorgan, mentioned in an announcement.
Epstein died in August 2019 on the age of 66 in a Manhattan jail cell whereas awaiting trial for intercourse trafficking. New York Metropolis’s health worker referred to as his demise a suicide.
The settlement partially resolves a uncommon public relations imbroglio for Jamie Dimon, who has been JPMorgan’s chief government since 2006.
Dimon testified underneath oath in Might that he had barely heard of Epstein till his July 2019 arrest, and didn’t recall discussing Epstein’s accounts with different financial institution officers, together with these licensed to terminate Epstein as a consumer.
Staley was as soon as a detailed Dimon ally and thought of a doable successor as CEO.
Dimon mentioned he requested Staley to go away JPMorgan in 2013, earlier than Epstein’s termination as a consumer, as a result of he was not operating its funding financial institution nicely. Epstein was not a think about Staley’s departure, Dimon mentioned.
Paperwork disclosed within the lawsuit confirmed that former JPMorgan counsel Stephen Cutler had requested the financial institution to chop ties with Epstein, however different executives resisted.
Reporting by Nupur Anand, Lananh Nguyen, Saeed Azhar, Luc Cohen, Jonathon Stempel in New York; Enhancing by Alexander Smith and Grant McCool
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