JPMorgan to pay US Virgin Islands $75m to settle Epstein lawsuit | Enterprise and Financial system Information

JPMorgan Chase has reached settlements with the US Virgin Islands (USVI) and former govt Jes Staley to resolve lawsuits over intercourse trafficking by the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, largely resolving a scandal that has weighed on the biggest US financial institution for months.

The settlements conclude the ultimate items of litigation in a saga involving girls who mentioned Epstein sexually abused them, and which embroiled a number of the world’s strongest figures in finance and enterprise.

JPMorgan mentioned its $75m settlement with the USVI consists of $30m to help charitable organizations, $25m to strengthen legislation enforcement to fight human trafficking, and $20m for legal professional’s charges.

Phrases of the financial institution’s settlement with Staley are confidential.

In June, JPMorgan agreed to pay $290m to resolve claims by dozens of Epstein’s accusers.

Epstein had been a JPMorgan shopper from 1998 till 2013 when the financial institution terminated their relationship.

“Whereas the settlement doesn’t contain admissions of legal responsibility, 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 method to commit his heinous crimes,” JPMorgan mentioned.

USVI Lawyer Basic Ariel Smith mentioned the settlement was a “historic victory for survivors and for state enforcement, and it ought to sound the alarm on Wall Road about banks’ obligations beneath the legislation to detect and forestall human trafficking”.

Staley’s attorneys didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.

A trial had been scheduled for October 23.

Epstein died in August 2019 in a Manhattan jail cell whereas awaiting trial for intercourse trafficking. New York Metropolis’s medical expert referred to as his dying a suicide.

Deficiencies in oversight

In July, USVI mentioned it needed JPMorgan to pay no less than $190m, together with a $150m civil positive, and probably rather more to resolve the lawsuit.

USVI mentioned JPMorgan saved Epstein as a valued shopper even after his 2006 arrest on prostitution prices and associated responsible plea two years later, and mentioned some financial institution officers stayed in contact with him lengthy after he was dismissed.

Each lawsuits uncovered deficiencies in JPMorgan’s oversight of purchasers, together with many communications the place workers urged the financial institution to cease doing enterprise with Epstein.

Tuesday’s settlement resolves a uncommon public relations drawback for Jamie Dimon, who has been JPMorgan’s CEO since 2006.

Dimon testified beneath oath in Could that he had barely heard of Epstein till the financier’s July 2019 arrest.

JPMorgan had argued that the USVI was additionally responsible for enabling Epstein’s intercourse trafficking by giving him tax incentives and waiving monitoring necessities, in alternate for money and items to native officers together with a former first woman.

Epstein had owned two personal islands throughout the territory, together with one he allegedly purchased to maintain onlookers from spying on his misconduct on the opposite.

Final November, USVI reached a settlement of no less than $105m with Epstein’s property.

Deutsche Financial institution, the place Epstein was a shopper from 2013 to 2018, in Could reached a $75m settlement with girls who mentioned Epstein sexually abused them.

Staley left JPMorgan in 2013 and later spent six years as Barclays’s chief govt.

JPMorgan had needed him to cowl its losses in its different two lawsuits, and have him forfeit eight years of pay.

Staley has expressed remorse for his friendship with Epstein and denied figuring out about his intercourse trafficking.