Deutsche Bank agrees to pay $75 million to Jeffrey Epstein victims to settle lawsuit

Deutsche Bank has agreed to pay victims of sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein $75 million to settle a federal lawsuit accusing the bank of enabling and profiting from its customer’s sex trafficking, sources told CNBC Wednesday night.

The massive deal still has JPMorgan Chase defending a class action lawsuit by Epstein’s accusers in US District Court in Manhattan, which includes similar allegations.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, who said the bank was not responsible for the sex trafficking of his former longtime client Epstein, is set to be deposed in that lawsuit, and a related one by the US Virgin Islands government on May 26.

Deutsche Bank’s settlement agreement, which will allocate $75 million to Epstein’s accusers, was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Under the deal, Epstein’s victims affected by sex trafficking during the time he was a Deutsche Bank client, from 2013 through 2018, will receive a minimum of $75,000 and up to $5 million depending on the assessment of their claims.

Deutsche Bank spokesman Dylan Riedel did not comment on the deal, but noted that his bank spent more than 4 billion euros. [$4.34 billion] To strengthen internal financial controls.

“In recent years, Deutsche Bank has made significant progress in addressing a number of past issues,” Riedel said.

He noted that in 2020, when the bank agreed to pay a $150 million fine to the New York financial regulator for its dealings with Epstein and other issues, Deutsche Bank said: “We acknowledge our mistake in including Epstein in 2013, and the weaknesses in our operations,” And we learned from our mistakes and shortcomings.”

“This groundbreaking settlement is the culmination of two law firms that conducted a more than decade-long investigation of Epstein’s financial banking contract,” the law firms representing the defendants, Edwards Pottinger and Boise Schiller Flexner, said in a joint statement obtained by CNBC. The role it played in facilitating the organization of human trafficking.”

The lawsuit, which was seeking class action status, was filed in November by a woman using the pseudonym Jane Doe. It alleged that Deutsche Bank knowingly participated in and profited financially from participating in Epstein’s sex trade “by providing the financial support required for the continued operation” of that scheme.

“Deutsche Bank has also learned that Epstein will use means of force, threat of force, fraud, abuse of due process, exploitation of power disparities, and a variety of other forms of coercion to drive young women and girls to engage in commercial sex acts,” Suit says.

“Knowing that they would make millions of dollars from facilitating Epstein’s sex trafficking, and from his connection to Epstein, Deutsche Bank chose profit over following the law,” the suit said. Specifically, Deutsche Bank chose to facilitate sex trafficking in order to increase profits.

Epstein, who was a client of JPMorgan from 1998 until 2013, became a client of Deutsche Bank after JPMorgan ended its banking relationship with him.

“Deutsche Bank picked up exactly where JPMorgan left off and became the bank Epstein needed to fund his sexual assault and sex trafficking operations,” the lawsuit says.

Epstein killed himself in a federal prison in Manhattan in August 2019, a month after he was arrested on federal child sex trafficking charges.

His arrest in that case came after he served 10 years or more than a year in prison for being convicted in a Florida state court of soliciting sex for money from an underage girl. This 2008 guilty plea was widely publicized.