JPMorgan Chase & Co. on Monday said it has reached a settlement in the class-action lawsuit Jane Doe 1 v. JPMorgan Chase. A source confirmed to MarketWatch that the settlement amount is $290 million, as was initially reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The lawsuit was filed in the Southern District of New York on Nov. 24 by Jane Doe 1, a victim of convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein who was seeking damages from the bank for its past dealings with Epstein, who died in 2019.
The name of the primary plaintiff in the lawsuit has not been released.
“The settlements that have been reached are both life-changing and historic for the survivors,” said Sigrid McCawley, a lawyer for the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. “Money, which for far too long flowed with impunity between Jeffrey Epstein’s global sex-trafficking enterprise and Wall Street’s leading banks, is decisively being used for good. The settlements signal that financial institutions have an important role to play in spotting and shutting down sex trafficking.”
Brad Edwards, a lawyer for Jane Doe 1, said the U.S. Virgin Islands, which is suing JPMorgan in a separate legal action, provided information and support to the survivors.
“We recognize the importance of the [U.S. Virgin Islands’] government’s continued litigation against JPMorgan Chase to prevent future crimes,” Edwards said in a statement emailed to MarketWatch.
Spokespersons for the plaintiff and for JPMorgan Chase told MarketWatch the dollar amount of the settlement was not being disclosed.
A spokesperson for JPMorgan Chase said, “We all now understand that Epstein’s behavior was monstrous, and we believe this settlement is in the best interest of all parties, especially the survivors, who suffered unimaginable abuse at the hands of this man.”
The bank also stated: “Any association with him was a mistake and we regret it. We would never have continued to do business with him if we believed he was using our bank in any way to help commit heinous crimes.”
The settlement comes just days after McCawley, of the law firm Bois Schiller Flexner, asked U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff to order JPMorgan Chase to provide more information about a 2019 bank review of the Epstein matter as well as the results of a bank review of its relationship with its former wealth chief, Jes Staley.
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Two other lawsuits involving the bank are still pending.
Those include a legal action between the U.S. Virgin Islands and JPMorgan Chase, as well as JPMorgan Chase’s lawsuit against Staley.
A spokesperson for the attorney general of the U.S. Virgin Islands said it will proceed with its lawsuit, which it described as an enforcement action to ensure full accountability for JPMorgan’s alleged violations of law and to prevent the bank from “assisting and profiting from human trafficking in the future.”
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Allegations against Epstein and JPMorgan Chase by the plaintiffs in the Jane Doe 1 lawsuit include sexual abuse by Epstein from 2006 to 2013, with payments in cash withdrawn from JPMorgan.
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