JPMorgan Chase has reached a settlement in a class action lawsuit involving victims of financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Epstein was Arrested on federal charges in 2019 He accused him of paying underage girls hundreds of dollars in cash for massages and then molesting them at his homes in Florida and New York. He was found dead in prison on August 10 of the same year at the age of 66. A coroner classified his death as a suicide.
The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court in November, aimed to hold JPMorgan financially liable for Epstein’s decades-long abuse of girls and young women. A similar lawsuit has been filed in the United States Virgin Islands.
The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
“We all now understand that Epstein’s behavior was outrageous and we believe this settlement is in the best interests of all parties, particularly the survivors who suffered unimaginable abuse at the hands of this man,” JPMorgan Chase said in a written statement early Monday .
The US Virgin Islands-JPMorgan Chase litigation and claims by JPMorgan Chase against former CEO Jes Staley are pending.
According to the lawsuits, JPMorgan provided Epstein with loans and regularly allowed him to withdraw large sums of cash from 1998 to August 2013, even though JPMorgan knew of its sex trafficking practices.
“Any association with him was a mistake and we regret it,” the bank said in a prepared statement. “We would never have done business with him if we believed he was in any way using our bank to commit heinous crimes.”
Both lawsuits were filed after New York State enacted an interim law in November that allows adult victims of sexual abuse to sue others for the abuse they suffered, even if the abuse happened a long time ago.
The bank denied the allegations and sued Staley, saying he concealed Epstein’s crimes in order to keep him as a customer.
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has testified that he never heard of Epstein and his crimes until the financier’s arrest in 2019, according to a transcript of the videotaped testimony released last month.
The settlement requires court approval.
JPMorgan shares were up slightly ahead of the market open.