A federal judge has ruled that the U.S. Virgin Islands and women who accuse the late investor Jeffrey Epstein of sex trafficking can proceed with some of their claims in a lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase over the bank’s ties to Epstein.
According to CNBC, Senior U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff also allowed a separate lawsuit by Epstein’s accusers against Deutsche Bank to proceed for some of that suit’s claims.
While everybody is focussed on Ukraine and SVB a judge ordered JP Morgan to hand over more documents on none other than their own CEO Jamie Dimon.
This case is about aiding Jeffrey Epstein and the sex trafficking ring……. pic.twitter.com/Zjzqibfa4S— Richard (@ricwe123) March 12, 2023
The ruling advances elements of three pending Epstein-related lawsuits against JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank.
Epstein victims anonymized as Jane Doe filed separate lawsuits against each bank, and the Virgin Islands separately sued JPMorgan only.
The mixed ruling gives the green light only to certain claims while dismissing others.
A common count in all three of the lawsuits accuses the institutions of knowingly benefiting from Epstein’s sex trafficking venture.
The ruling follows oral arguments last week, where an attorney for the Virgin Islands accused JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon of knowing Epstein was a sex trafficker as far back as 2008, the same year Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor.
Law and Crime has more:
The order ratchets up scrutiny on the financial institutions, and its executives, who stand accused in civil court of “complicity” in Epstein’s sex trafficking empire. Epstein’s scheme has been likened to a Pyramid scheme, in which victims would be lured in with hush money for massages that escalated into sexual abuse. Those victims, in turn, would be offered additional payments to find other victims and buy their silence, their attorneys say.
To evade scrutiny for these payments, their attorneys argue that financial institutions had to turn the other way, and the arrangement was allegedly mutually beneficial.
“This was a quid pro quo,” the victims’ lawyer Sigrid McCawley alleged in a recent hearing.
The litigation has embarrassed powerful executives, including former Barclays CEO Jes Staley. The Virgin Islands government unsealed some of the 1,200 emails that Staley exchanged with Epstein, including one Staley sent from Epstein’s Virgin Islands home of Little St. James in autumn 2009.
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