Abuse victims of American businessman Jeffrey Epstein have reached a settlement of about $ 290 million (about 270 million euros) with the bank JPMorgan Chase & Co. That writes news agency Reuters. According to the victims, JPMorgan continued to provide financial services to Epstein for years while executives within the investment bank knew about his sex crimes.
For example, Epstein, who was a customer of the American bank from 1998 to 2013, was already convicted in 2008 of paying underage girls for sex. Internal warnings about Epstein would have been ignored. “We would never have continued to do business with him if we believed he was using our bank to help commit heinous crimes,” the bank said in a statement.
Despite this, two lawsuits are still pending against JPMorgan: a case brought by the government of the US Virgin Islands, where the abuse of Epstein took place, among other things, and a case brought by JPMorgan against former top executive Jes Staley, who was friends with Epstein and on the would have been aware of his behavior.
Read also:Jeffrey Epstein tried to blackmail Bill Gates with affair, American newspaper reveals
Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank previously reached an agreement with abuse victims of the American businessman on a settlement of $ 75 million. The bank allegedly failed to report large payments from Epstein to victims to authorities, even though it was legally required to do so. Epstein was a client of Deutsche Bank from 2013 to 2018.
Jeffrey Epstein was a businessman who counted influential politicians and famous movie stars among his circle of friends. He allegedly molested and abused dozens of girls and women for years in his homes in New York, Florida and the US Virgin Islands. He was convicted in 2008 but was released after 13 months. In 2019, he committed suicide in his cell while awaiting trial in which he was charged with ‘sex trafficking’ of underage girls.