A Bank of America branch in New York, USA, on Saturday, October 11, 2025.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Bank of America has agreed to pay $72.5 million to victims of notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging the bank facilitated his sex trafficking operation, according to a New York federal court filing Friday evening.
The settlement, in which BoA did not admit wrongdoing, is the fourth settlement by a major bank of legal claims brought by Epstein victims or a government agency who allege they effectively facilitated human trafficking while he was a customer. The settlement with BoA must be approved by U.S. District Court in Manhattan Judge Jed Rakoff; such approval is usually granted.
The settlement would pay “all women who were sexually abused or trafficked between June 30, 2008 and July 6, 2019, by Jeffrey Epstein or a person associated with or otherwise associated with Jeffrey Epstein or a sex trafficking enterprise operated by Jeffrey Epstein,” the filing said.
Lawyers in the case “are aware that there were at least 60 women who were victims of Epstein between these dates,” the filing said.
A Bank of America spokesman said in a statement: “While we stand by our prior statements on the record 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 plaintiffs.”
CNBC has reached out to the two law firms that represented the victims in the lawsuit filed in October 2025, Boies Schiller Flexner and Edwards Henderson, for comment.
Previous bank statements
Read more about the Jeffrey Epstein files
However, Deutsche Bank said at the time of the settlement: “We are aware of our error in onboarding Epstein in 2013 and the weaknesses in our processes and have learned from our mistakes and shortcomings.”
These three previous lawsuits, like the current one against BoA, were filed in federal court in Manhattan.
What was alleged in the lawsuit
The lead plaintiff in the Bank of America case, who filed suit under the pseudonym Jane Doe, is a Russian native who met Epstein in 2011.
The complaint against BoA said that “beginning this year through 2019, Epstein sexually abused Jane Doe at least 100 times, including by forcibly touching her, forcibly raping her, and forcing her to engage in sexual acts with other women for his own depraved sexual gratification.”
The lawsuit says that in May 2013, at the direction of Epstein’s accountant Richard Kahn and an immigration lawyer, Jane Doe opened a bank account at Bank of America to defraud immigration officials.
The lawsuit states that “a recent investigation into Epstein’s crimes revealed that, among other things, billionaire Wall Street financier Leon Black paid Epstein $170 million for purported ‘tax and estate planning advice’ from his Bank of America account.”
In 2023, Black agreed to pay the U.S. Virgin Islands $62.5 million, and in return the government released him from any possible legal claims related to Epstein.
“At the core of the amended complaint, lead plaintiff alleges that Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking enterprise was facilitated and enabled [Bank of America] We help Epstein evade regulators’ scrutiny and provide Epstein withdrawal and transfer services so that defendant can benefit from Epstein and his associates,” the settlement filing states.
“Lead plaintiff further alleges that defendant’s support of Epstein’s sex trafficking enterprise prevented authorities from uncovering his illegal scheme and increased Epstein’s access to and control over victims, thereby causing harm to the group’s members,” the lawsuit states.
The bank “has expressly denied and continues to deny that it was in any way involved in or otherwise aided, abetted or facilitated the Epstein sex trafficking enterprise or that it engaged in obstruction.”
Epstein, 66, took his own life in a federal prison in Manhattan in August 2019, just weeks after he was arrested on child trafficking charges.
He previously pleaded guilty in a Florida court in 2008 to soliciting an underage girl for prostitution and ended up serving 13 months in prison.
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