Bank of America will compensate Epstein for $72.5 million.

 

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In a lawsuit brought on behalf of Jeffrey Epstein's victims, Bank of America agreed to pay $72.5 million (£54.6 million) as a settlement. The victims had accused the bank of helping him run his sex trafficking business. The proposed class-action lawsuit was filed in October by a Florida woman who says she was abused by Epstein "on at least 100 occasions" between 2011 and 2019 and held two accounts at Bank of America at the direction of his business team.

 "A plethora of information regarding Epstein's sex trafficking operation, but chose profit over protecting the victims," it was alleged. The settlement, according to Bank of America, is "no admission of liability" or "wrongdoing" on its part, as stated in the court documents. Documents were filed on Friday in a New York federal court revealing the terms of the settlement, which was reached earlier this month. They now await a judge's approval.

 In a statement earlier this month, victim's attorney Sigrid McCawley told the BBC that the resolution was "one more step on the road to much deserved justice." It marks the third such settlement by a major bank, after JP Morgan Chase and Deutsche Bank agreed to pay out $290m (£218m) and $75m respectively.

 "Jane Doe," the plaintiff in the lawsuit, has a history of "incredibly alarming and erratic banking behavior" in her own Bank of America accounts, which Epstein's team used. She claims that in 2011, she met Epstein in Russia, and that he controlled and abused her sexually until his death in jail in August 2019.

Epstein's death was ruled a suicide, and Jane Doe called it her "ultimate escape".

 The lawsuit also mentions that billionaire Leon Black, co-founder of Apollo Global, paid more than $150 million to Epstein through his Bank of America account for "purported "tax and estate planning advice." Black has denied any wrongdoing and resigned from Apollo amid scrutiny of his ties to Epstein. He was questioned as part of the case last week.

 Previously, Bank of America had called the complaint "threadbare and meritless," claiming that it had provided routine services to people who had no known connections to Epstein at the time. "While we stand by our prior statements made in the filings in this case, including that Bank of America did not facilitate sex trafficking crimes, this resolution allows us to put this matter behind us and provides further closure for the plaintiffs," Bank of America told the BBC in a statement on Saturday.

Source: BBC