Why does JPMorgan Chase have to pay Jeffrey Epstein victims $290 million?

JPMorgan Chase has reached a settlement agreement of $290 million in a class action lawsuit filed by sexual abuse victims of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

The bank and lawyers for the victims issued a joint statement saying that they have “informed the court that they have reached an agreement in principle to settle the putative class action lawsuit related to Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes.”

The court will still have to approve the settlement.

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Why does JPMorgan Chase have to pay Jeffrey Epstein victims $290 million?

According to CNN, under the agreement, the bank is not admitting liability in the case; but once the court approves resettlement, JPMorgan Chase will release a statement saying that they regretted their association with the sex offender.

Epstein was arrested in 2019 on charges of sex trafficking of minors but died by suicide in his jail cell before he could stand trial. His victims had accused JPMorgan Chase of enabling the sex offender’s crimes when he was their client, and wanted to hold them financially liable for the businessman’s abuse of young women and teenage girls.

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Victims allege that JPMorgan Chase was aware of Epstein’s crimes

The victims filed the lawsuit after New York enacted a law allowing adult victims of sexual abuse to sue for the injustice they had suffered even if the crimes took place many years before.

The class action lawsuit charged that the bank gave Epstein loans and permitted him to make large cash withdrawals even though they were aware that he was engaged in sex trafficking. The bank has denied the allegations and filed a lawsuit against former JPMorgan Chase executive Jes Staley, whom they accuse of covering up Epstein’s crimes in order to maintain him as a client.

The financier’s victims had previously reached a $75 million settlement with Deutsche Bank.