Deutsche Bank has agreed to pay $75 million to victims of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse to settle a lawsuit filed last year in Manhattan, according to lawyers for the victims.
The settlement, which must be approved by a federal judge, would resolve a proposed class action lawsuit that alleged the bank helped enable the disgraced financier’s sex trafficking of young women by missing warning signs in Mr. Epstein stating that he was engaged in wrongdoing. .
Dylan Riddle, a spokesman for the German bank, declined to comment on any proposed settlement. But in a statement, Mr Riddle said the bank “has made significant progress in addressing a number of past issues”, while investing in strengthening its internal controls.
David Boies and Brad Edwards, lawyers for the women who brought the case, said $75 million would be made available to the more than 125 victims of Mr Epstein who had previously obtained payments from a restitution fund created by his estate after his death in 2019. .
Mr. Boies and Mr. Edwards, who work in separate firms, said in a joint statement: ‘This groundbreaking settlement is the culmination of two law firms conducting more than a decade of investigation to hold one financial banking partners of Epstein responsible for the role he played in facilitating his organization of traffickers.
News of the settlement was reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal.
Mr Epstein’s estate set up the restitution fund several months after he died by suicide while in federal custody awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
The fund has paid more than $125 million to its victims, many of whom were teenage girls when they were abused by Mr Epstein. In addition, the estate paid approximately $20 million in settlements to other victims who did not seek compensation from the restitution fund.
The tentative settlement closes another chapter in Deutsche Bank’s relationship with Mr. Epstein, which began in 2013 and continued through the end of 2018. In 2020, Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank agreed to pay $150 million to New York regulators to settle the claims. that the bank has repeatedly ignored suspicious transactions involving Mr. Epstein and ignored obvious red flags about its activities.
Deutsche Bank accepted Mr Epstein as a client after JPMorgan Chase, which had been its main bank for about 15 years, stopped doing business with him. Lawyers for the victims have sued JPMorgan, saying he too ignored Mr Epstein’s warning signs and benefited financially from his sex trafficking operation.
The government of the US Virgin Islands, the territory where Mr. Epstein operated his businesses for nearly two decades, sued JPMorgan. Last year, Mr Epstein’s estate agreed to pay $105 million to the Virgin Islands to settle a lawsuit brought by the government to recoup tax benefits it gave to one of Mr Epstein’s businesses in St. Thomas.
In 2008, Mr Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida to a charge of soliciting prostitution from a teenage girl and was ordered to register as a sex offender.
But the guilty plea hasn’t stopped the rich and famous — including a number of wealthy men — from continuing to socialize with him at his Manhattan home and other residences.