The Attorney General of the US Virgin Islands is accusing JPMorgan Chase of assisting Jeffrey Epstein in illegally exploiting women and girls, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court in Manhattan. The lawsuit states that JPMorgan provided banking services to Mr. Epstein after he was convicted of sexual charges and failed to report his suspicious activities.
The lawsuit stated that the bank should have known about Mr. Epstein’s illegal activities at a villa on Little St. James Island, an island he owned in the area, and should have reported it to authorities as part of its compliance of anti-money laundering laws.
“JPMorgan knowingly, negligently and unlawfully provided and pulled the levers by which recruiters and victims were paid and was indispensable to the operation and concealment of the Epstein trading company,” the lawsuit said.
A JPMorgan spokeswoman declined to comment.
Mr Epstein, a secretive financier, maintained close ties to a long list of wealthy men, politicians and celebrities, even after pleading guilty to two counts of prostitution of a teenage girl in 2008 and facing allegations in 2016 that he had aided a more extensive investigation into his activities. He died in an apparent suicide in August 2019 while in federal custody on a new set of sexual exploitation charges.
Mr. Epstein was a client of JPMorgan’s high-end banking services for 15 years, a relationship that continued well after his 2008 conviction, although the bank’s employees expressed alarm about the legal and reputational risks. The bank evicted him as a customer in 2013.
Tuesday’s lawsuit, portions of which were redacted for public viewing, said the bank’s failure to cut ties with Mr Epstein following his 2008 conviction, as well as its failure to investigate his activities when new allegations of sexual abuse were brought against him going public amounted to helping Mr. Epstein carry out his plans.
The lawsuit cited civil racketeering claims that the area’s Attorney General, Denise N. George, filed in 2020 against Mr. Epstein’s estate. The 2020 case described a complex operation aimed at bringing women and girls to Little St. James Island, where they were abused and then paid to remain silent.
On November 30, Ms. George and the estate announced an agreement to settle the case for approximately $105 million, including $80 million in government refunds for tax benefits Mr Epstein improperly obtained, and about half of the proceeds from the sale of Mr. Epstein’s Island, which could cost a total of $55 million. Neither the estate nor its executors admitted wrongdoing as part of the settlement.
This week’s lawsuit against JPMorgan seeks to force the bank to turn over profits from its dealings with Mr. Epstein and his companies and pay unspecified amounts of fines and damages to the government.
“JPMorgan facilitated and concealed wire and cash transactions that aroused suspicion of — and were, in fact, part of — a criminal enterprise whose currency was the sexual servitude of dozens of women and girls in and outside the Virgin Islands,” the lawsuit said.
