International Courant
The US authorities Virgin Islands in a court docket submitting Friday estimated it would search damages of not less than $190 million JPMorgan Chase in a court docket case accusing the massive financial institution of facilitating intercourse trafficking by its former longtime shopper Jeffrey Epstein.
The Virgin Islands additionally stated it needs an order requiring JPMorgan to take a collection of steps to guard younger ladies and ladies from different predators sooner or later.
“This set of suggestions goals to deal with the identical core challenge: JPMorgan’s information of
and Epstein’s failure to report the trafficking as a result of it lacked the financial incentive and motivation
to place compliance with the regulation and prevention of human trafficking forward of its personal earnings,” the submitting stated within the US District Courtroom in Manhattan.
The US territory additionally stated it would search additional compensatory damages particularly for victims of Epstein, along with the almost $300 million JPMorgan agreed final month to pay victims to settle a lawsuit by one among its accusers. The submitting gave no quantity for that further damages from the financial institution, which has staunchly denied any wrongdoing.
The brand new submitting got here final week in response to a request from Decide Jed Rakoff that the territory specify the damages it seeks within the case because it strikes towards a scheduled trial on Oct. 23.
The Virgin Islands lawsuit accuses JPMorgan of taking advantage of Epstein’s trafficking of younger ladies to be abused by him and others in the course of the 15 years he was a shopper of the financial institution, the most important in the USA.
The criticism alleges that JPMorgan allowed Epstein to carry many hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in accounts on the financial institution, which he used to fund his intercourse trafficking enterprise, regardless of a number of purple flags about him raised by financial institution workers through the years.
“We’re persevering with this enforcement motion as a result of the institutional failure of JPMorgan Chase has enabled Jeffrey Epstein’s intercourse trafficking, and JPMorgan Chase should make important adjustments to detect, report and cease human trafficking,” stated the U.S. lawyer basic. Virgin Islands, Ariel Smith, in a press release Friday.
“Monetary sanctions, in addition to behavioral adjustments, are essential in ensuring JPMorgan Chase is aware of the price of placing its personal revenue earlier than public security,” Smith stated.
She stated that if the Virgin Islands wins their lawsuit, they are going to use the financial damages they obtain “to assist efforts to strengthen, inform and broaden native regulation enforcement and enhance Virgin Islands providers for victims of human trafficking and different to enhance victims of crime.”
A spokeswoman for JPMorgan, when requested for touch upon the submitting, stated it seems to be the primary time the financial institution’s attorneys have mentioned a attainable settlement of the lawsuit with Virgin Islands attorneys, which might see a lawsuit prevented.
“This doc doesn’t replicate the character of settlement talks,” spokeswoman Patricia Wexler stated. “As for the USVI’s misdirected injury theories, they don’t seem to be properly based and are being challenged in court docket by JPM.”
In civil litigation, it is not uncommon for circumstances to be settled with out trial.
Based on the submitting, the Virgin Islands alone needs not less than $150 million in civil penalties. The submitting additionally says it needs JPMorgan to launch not less than one other $40 million in charges that Epstein generated for the financial institution that JPMorgan acquired from “many very excessive web price shoppers,” he referred to the financial institution.
These shoppers, the submitting stated, included Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Microsoft founder Invoice Gates, Restricted Manufacturers founder Lex Wexner, and billionaire Glenn Dubin.
Along with the financial damages, the Virgin Islands are additionally asking to compel JPMorgan to “implement new insurance policies, together with separating its enterprise and compliance features and appointing an impartial compliance advisor, to stop human trafficking,” based on a press launch from the agency. from Smith. .
JPMorgan, in its personal court docket paperwork, has accused the Virgin Islands itself of “being complicit within the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein.”
The financial institution alleges that Epstein gave senior officers there cash, recommendation and favors in trade for wanting the opposite manner when he trafficked younger ladies to be abused there.
Epstein owned a residence on a non-public island within the space, the place accusers say he and different individuals sexually assaulted them.
Final month, in the identical court docket the place the Virgin Islands is suing the financial institution, JPMorgan agreed, with out admitting wrongdoing, to pay $290 million to Epstein’s victims to settle a lawsuit introduced by one among its accusers.
In Could, German Financial institution agreed to pay Epstein victims $75 million to settle a separate lawsuit by a prosecutor accusing him of complicity in his intercourse trafficking of her and others. Deutsche Financial institution took on Epstein as a shopper after JPMorgan reduce ties with him in 2013, years after financial institution workers first raised considerations about him.
Deutsche Financial institution beforehand agreed to pay the New York State Division of Monetary Companies a $150 million wonderful for failing to detect or forestall hundreds of thousands of {dollars} price of suspicious transactions associated to Epstein, together with “funds to Russian fashions and to numerous ladies with Jap European surnames”. the submitting Friday by the Virgin Islands famous.
Epstein, who had been a good friend of former Presidents Donald Trump and Invoice Clinton, in addition to Britain’s Prince Andrew, pleaded responsible in 2008 to a Florida state cost of soliciting intercourse from an underage lady. He served 13 months in jail, however spent a lot of that point on day off work every day.
Epstein, then 66, dedicated suicide in a New York federal jail in August 2019, a month after being arrested on federal little one trafficking expenses.
