Attorneys representing the victims of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have filed a notice in a Manhattan court, providing new details in what is a $290 million settlement with JPMorgan Chase to resolve a lawsuit.
Earlier, an “agreement in principle” on the settlement was announced jointly on June 12 by JPMorgan and attorneys representing the lead plaintiff, Jane Doe 1. At the time, the details of the settlement were not disclosed.
Epstein victim lawyers said in Thursday’s court filing that the settlement is an all-cash $290 million payout less legal fees and litigation costs.
Attorneys’ fees will amount to no more than 30 percent of the total settlement amount, while litigation costs will amount to no more than $2.5 million, leaving around $200 million for the victims.
The money will go into a “global settlement fund” that will made available to the class of women who say they were victimized by Epstein.
The terms of the settlement were “in all respects fair, adequate, reasonable,” the attorneys said in the filing.
Responses
Sigrid McCawley, managing partner at Boies Schiller Flexner, the law firm representing Jane Doe 1, told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that the settlement represents a major victory for the women.“The settlements that have been reached are both life-changing and historic for the survivors,” McCawley said.
Victims led by Jane Doe 1 said JPMorgan missed red flags of Epstein’s abuses and remained in contact with him long after it closed his accounts in 2013.
JPMorgan did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest filing, which detailed the terms of the settlement.
However, a JPMorgan spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an earlier emailed statement when the preliminary agreement was announced that Epstein’s behavior was “monstrous.”
The spokesperson added at the time that the settlement was in the “best interests of all parties, especially the survivors, who suffered unimaginable abuse at the hands of this man.”
The settlement still needs to be approved by District Judge Jed Rakoff, a Clinton appointee overseeing the case.
More Details
Jane Doe 1 sued on behalf of a large number of Epstein victims in what became a class-action lawsuit, alleging that JPMorgan turned a blind eye to the disgraced financier’s sexual abuses.Epstein had been a client of JPMorgan from 1998 to 2013, when America’s biggest bank terminated his accounts.
The disgraced financier pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting a minor for prostitution and was required to register as a sex offender.
JPMorgan worked with Epstein for years after his conviction.
The same law firm represented Epstein’s victims in a similar $75 million settlement with Deutsche Bank, where he was also a client.
David Boies, a lawyer representing the women, told The Epoch Times in an earlier email commenting on the Deutsche Bank settlement that “the road to justice for the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking ring has been too long, and we are not yet at its end.”
Boies called the recovery from Deutsche Bank “another important step in achieving the vindication, recognition, and compensation they deserve.”
The judge preliminarily approved the Deutsche Bank settlement on June 16.
Dylan Riddle, a spokesman for Deutsche Bank, declined to comment on the settlement in response to a request from The Epoch Times.
However, in a statement to The Wall Street Journal, Riddle said the bank has invested more than $4 billion to bolster internal training and financial controls. The bank has also increased the number of employees dedicated to fighting financial crime, he said.
Epstein died at age 66 in a federal jail cell in New York while awaiting trial on charges of sex-trafficking minors, with his death ruled a suicide.
He was accused of trafficking underage girls for years, including at his Manhattan residence.
Jane Doe 1, who brought the suit that’s being settled, has been described as a New York ballet dancer who was groomed by Epstein and his associates.
She said she was abused and trafficked by Epstein from 2006 to 2013.
The settlements don’t affect a separate case brought by officials in the U.S. Virgin Islands against JPMorgan.
Virgin Islands officials said JPMorgan helped facilitate Epstein’s sex trafficking by providing banking services, noting that the services remained in place even after Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting a minor for prostitution.
Materials that have emerged in the discovery process in the U.S. Virgin Islands lawsuit allege that some Virgin Islands officials “actively facilitated” Epstein’s trafficking.
