Deutsche Financial institution pays the victims $75 million

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Deutsche Bank has agreed to pay $75 million to victims of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to settle a federal lawsuit alleging the bank facilitated and profited from the sex trafficking of young women by its customers. sources told CNBC on Wednesday night.

The bomb deal remains JPMorgan Chase to defend his own class action lawsuit filed by the Epstein accusers in US District Court in Manhattan over similar allegations.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, who has said the bank is not responsible for the sex trafficking of its former longtime client Epstein, is scheduled to be removed in that lawsuit and a related May 26 lawsuit brought by the US Virgin Islands government.

The Wall Street Journal reported for the first time on Deutsche Bank’s settlement agreement, which provides $75 million for the Epstein accusers.

Under the agreement, victims of Epstein affected by his sex trafficking during the time he was a Deutsche Bank client, from 2013 to 2018, would receive a minimum of $75,000 and up to $5 million, contingent the assessment of their claims.

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

“Over the past several years, Deutsche Bank has made significant progress in addressing a number of previous issues,” Riddle said.

He pointed out that in 2020, when Deutsche Bank agreed to pay a $150 million fine to the New York Financial Supervisory Authority for its dealings with Epstein and other issues, it said, “We recognize ours Failed to incorporate Epstein in 2013 and the weaknesses in our processes and have learned from our mistakes and shortcomings.”

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The two law firms representing the accusers, Edwards Pottinger and Boies Schiller Flexner, said in a joint statement obtained by CNBC: “This landmark settlement is the culmination of a more than decade-long investigation by two law firms to hold one of Epstein’s financial banks. Partners responsible for the role it has played in promoting its human trafficking organization.

The lawsuit, which was seeking class-action status, was filed in November by a woman using the alias Jane Doe. She claimed that Deutsche Bank knowingly engaged in Epstein’s sex trafficking and benefited financially from it “by providing the necessary financial support for the continued operation” of that scheme.

“Deutsche Bank also knew that Epstein would use violent means, threats of violence, fraud, abuse of legal process, exploitation of power differences, and a variety of other forms of coercion to entice young women and girls into engaging in commercial sexual activity. ” is in a suit.

“Knowing that it would make millions of dollars by supporting Epstein’s sex trade and her relationship with Epstein, Deutsche Bank chose to make profit over compliance,” the lawsuit reads. “Specifically, Deutsche Bank decided to enable sex trafficking in order to generate profits.”

A video still from the NBC archives of Donald Trump speaking to Jeffrey Epstein at a party in Mar-A-Lago in 1992.

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

“Deutsche Bank picked up right where JPMorgan left off and became the bank that Epstein needed to fund his sexual abuse and sex trafficking operations,” the lawsuit states.

Epstein took his own life in a federal prison in Manhattan in August 2019, a month after he was arrested on child trafficking charges.

His arrest in that case came ten years after he had served a jail sentence or more than a year for pleading guilty in a Florida state court to soliciting sex from an underage girl for money. This 2008 admission of guilt was widely publicized.