JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) has agreed to pay $75 million to settle claims related to Jeffrey Epstein brought by the Attorney General of the U.S. Virgin Islands, according to a statement released on Wednesday. This settlement comes after a $290 million agreement reached in June with Epstein's victims, bringing the total amount paid by the bank in relation to Epstein's crimes to $365 million.
The two lawsuits alleged that JPMorgan Chase failed to report suspicious activities linked to Epstein's sex trafficking operation. It was claimed that the bank overlooked Epstein's withdrawal of between $40,000 and $80,000 in cash monthly from his accounts over a 15-year period, amounting to more than $5 million.
These settlements follow JPMorgan's admission in 2014 to two criminal charges brought by the U.S. Department of Justice for banking Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme for decades and ignoring its legal obligation to file Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs). The settlement with the Justice Department included a penalty of $1.7 billion in restitution to Madoff victims and a promise to reform its anti-money laundering compliance programs.
Throughout the lawsuit process, emails were uncovered showing that JPMorgan Chase continued its relationship with Epstein beyond the bank's claimed end date of 2013. These correspondences reveal that bankers and brokers from JPMorgan visited Epstein's Manhattan residence even years after 2013. One such broker made 13 visits as recently as 2017, five of which were characterized as "routine account servicing."
The court documents also indicated that JPMorgan was keen on building a substantial banking relationship with Leon Black, then head of Apollo Global Management (NYSE:APO), who had a significant financial relationship with Epstein. Black has since faced multiple lawsuits from women alleging sexual assault.
Court filings from July 26 reveal that Epstein referred several ultra-wealthy clients to the bank, including Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) co-founder Bill Gates, Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) co-founder Sergey Brin, and the Sultan of Dubai, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem.
The bank's settlements were announced on a Tuesday, deviating from the norm of releasing such news late on Friday afternoons to minimize public relations damage.
JPMorgan Chase and its Chairman and CEO, Jamie Dimon, continue to face scrutiny for their banking relationship with Epstein. The bank's association with Epstein has been described as a significant failure of its moral compass, prioritizing financial gain over ethical considerations.
The $75 million settlement with the U.S. Virgin Islands was announced shortly after Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael Hiltzik declared JPMorgan guilty in his column for the Los Angeles Times, reaching an audience of 4.4 million people weekly. Hiltzik argued that Epstein's arrest in July 2019 could have occurred sooner had JPMorgan shared what it knew about his activities and provided documentation of his financial transactions.
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