World Courant
The US authorities Virgin Islands in a court docket submitting Friday estimated it can search damages of no less than $190 million JPMorgan Chase in a court docket case accusing the large financial institution of facilitating intercourse trafficking by its former longtime consumer Jeffrey Epstein.
The Virgin Islands additionally stated it desires an order requiring JPMorgan to take a sequence 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 situation: JPMorgan’s data 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 Court docket in Manhattan.
The US territory additionally stated it can 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 extra 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 through the 15 years he was a consumer of the financial institution, the most important in the US.
The grievance alleges that JPMorgan allowed Epstein to carry many thousands and thousands of {dollars} in accounts on the financial institution, which he used to fund his intercourse trafficking enterprise, regardless of a number of crimson flags about him raised by financial institution workers over time.
“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 vital adjustments to detect, report and cease human trafficking,” stated the U.S. lawyer normal. Virgin Islands, Ariel Smith, in an announcement Friday.
“Monetary sanctions, in addition to behavioral adjustments, are vital 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 may 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 doable 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 harm theories, they aren’t nicely based and are being challenged in court docket by JPM.”
In civil litigation, it’s common for circumstances to be settled with out trial.
In response to the submitting, the Virgin Islands alone desires no less than $150 million in civil penalties. The submitting additionally says it desires JPMorgan to launch no less than one other $40 million in charges that Epstein generated for the financial institution that JPMorgan obtained from “many very excessive internet value shoppers,” he referred to the financial institution.
These folks, the submitting stated, included Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Microsoft founder Invoice Gates, Restricted Manufacturers founder Lex Wexner, and billionaire Glenn Dubin.
A Gates spokesperson contacted CNBC after this text was first printed, and in an e mail, “Mr. Gates was by no means a JP Morgan consumer.”
Along with the financial damages, the Virgin Islands can be asking JPMorgan to be compelled “to implement new insurance policies, together with separating the enterprise and compliance capabilities and appointing an unbiased compliance advisor, to forestall human trafficking,” based on a press launch from the US. Smith’s workplace. .
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 change for wanting the opposite manner when he trafficked younger ladies to be abused there.
Epstein owned a residence on a personal island within the space, the place accusers say he and different folks 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 consumer after JPMorgan lower ties with him in 2013, years after financial institution workers first raised issues about him.
Deutsche Financial institution beforehand agreed to pay the New York State Division of Monetary Providers a $150 million high quality for failing to detect or forestall thousands and thousands of {dollars} value 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 woman. He served 13 months in jail, however spent a lot of that point on day without work 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 prices.
