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JPMorgan Chase has agreed to pay $US75 million ($A117 million) to settle claims by the US Virgin Islands that the financial institution aided within the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s intercourse trafficking.
The most important US financial institution additionally reached a confidential settlement with Jes Staley, a former personal banking chief who was near Epstein and who JPMorgan blamed for preserving him as a consumer.
Each settlements have been reached 4 weeks earlier than a scheduled trial, largely resolving a scandal that has weighed on JPMorgan all 12 months.
They conclude the ultimate items of main litigation over Epstein’s sexual abuse of girls, which has embroiled outstanding individuals corresponding to Prince Andrew and highly effective figures in enterprise.
Lawsuits towards JPMorgan additionally known as into query the financial institution’s oversight of purchasers, with accusations it ignored purple flags and inner warnings about Epstein, together with over cash he supposedly withdrew to pay younger girls and teenage ladies.
Epstein had been a JPMorgan consumer from 1998 till 2013, when the New York-based financial institution fired him.
“The agency deeply regrets any affiliation with this man, and would by no means have continued doing enterprise with him if it believed he was utilizing the financial institution in any strategy to commit his heinous crimes,” JPMorgan stated in a press release.
The US Virgin Islands settlement requires JPMorgan to pay $US30 million to assist charitable organisations, $US25 million to fight human trafficking and $US20 million to the territory’s attorneys.
JPMorgan didn’t admit wrongdoing.
It agreed in June to pay $US290 million to resolve separate claims by dozens of Epstein’s accusers.
US Virgin Islands Legal professional Normal Ariel Smith stated the settlement was a “historic victory for survivors and for state enforcement, and it ought to sound the alarm on Wall Avenue about banks’ tasks underneath the legislation to detect and forestall human trafficking”.
Final November, the territory reached a separate settlement of a minimum of $US105 million with Epstein’s property.
Legal professionals for Staley didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
JPMorgan had wished him to cowl its losses in its different two lawsuits and forfeit eight years of pay.
Staley left JPMorgan in 2013, shortly earlier than Epstein was fired, and later spent six years as Barclays’ chief govt.
He has expressed remorse for his friendship with Epstein and denied realizing about his intercourse trafficking.
Epstein died in August 2019 in a Manhattan jail cell whereas awaiting trial for intercourse trafficking.
New York Metropolis’s medical expert known as his loss of life a suicide.
The US Virgin Islands had been looking for a minimum of $US190 million from JPMorgan.
It accused the financial institution of ignoring warning indicators about Epstein’s misconduct, even after his 2006 arrest on prostitution expenses and responsible plea two years later.
The territory additionally stated some financial institution officers stayed in contact with Epstein lengthy after he was dismissed as a consumer.
JPMorgan countered that the US Virgin Islands was additionally at fault, for giving Epstein tax incentives and waiving monitoring necessities in trade for money and presents to native officers, together with a former first girl.
Epstein had owned two personal islands inside the territory, together with one he allegedly purchased to maintain onlookers from spying on his misconduct on the opposite.
JPMorgan’s ties to Epstein turned a uncommon public relations drawback for Jamie Dimon, the financial institution’s CEO since 2006.
Dimon testified underneath oath in Could that he had barely heard of Epstein till the financier’s July 2019 arrest.
Amongst these ensnared by the scandal was Leon Black, the billionaire co-founder of personal fairness agency Apollo World Administration, who had shut enterprise ties with Epstein.
Black reached his personal $US62.5 million settlement with the US Virgin Islands earlier this 12 months, to keep away from a attainable lawsuit.
He has denied enabling Epstein’s intercourse abuses, and regretted his ties with the financier.
Deutsche Financial institution, the place Epstein was a consumer from 2013 to 2018, reached a $US75 million settlement with Epstein’s accusers in Could.
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