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Lawyers representing the U.S. Virgin Islands have filed legal action against JPMorgan Chase regarding the bank’s financial dealings with the late convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, alleging that the Wall Street financial giant benefited from his sex trafficking and then failed to report suspicious activity to the proper authorities.
“Over more than a decade, JPMorgan (JPM) clearly knew it was not complying with federal regulations in regard to Epstein-related accounts as evidenced by its too-little too-late efforts after Epstein was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges and shortly after his death, when JPMorgan (JPM) belatedly complied with federal law,” says the complaint filed by US Virgin Islands Attorney General Denise George, according to CNN.
“Human trafficking was the principal business of the accounts Epstein maintained at JPMorgan,” the lawsuit states. In addition, the complaint alleges that the bank concealed “wire and cash transactions that raised suspicion of a criminal enterprise whose currency was the sexual servitude” of young girls.
The Virgin Islands’ civil action comes on the heels of lawsuits filed last month by two women who accused Epstein of sexual abuse against JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank, also claiming that the banks benefitted from the late pedophile’s sex trafficking.
The women accused JPMorgan of having “provided special treatment to the sex-trafficking venture, thereby ensuring its continued operation and sexual abuse and sex-trafficking of young women and girls.”
“Without the financial institution’s participation, Epstein’s sex trafficking scheme could not have existed,” the lawsuit noted further.
“The time has come for the real enablers to be held responsible, especially his wealthy friends and the financial institutions that played an integral role,” Bradley Edwards, a lawyer in the case against Deutsche Bank, told The Wall Street Journal.
“These victims were wronged, by many, not just Epstein. He did not act alone,” the attorney added.
CNN noted further:
The lawsuit claims that JPMorgan Chase failed to make proper regulatory filings that could have tipped off the government to Epstein’s alleged sex-trafficking ring of underage girls through private islands he owned in the U.S. Virgin Islands. In particular, the government argues that JPMorgan Chase should have given Epstein closer scrutiny as a client after he entered a guilty plea to soliciting prostitution with a minor in Florida in 2008.
The outlet noted further that George’s lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase comes less than a month after she settled a separate lawsuit with Epstein’s estate for $105 million.
The attorney general of the U.S. Virgin Islands is accusing JPMorgan Chase of helping Jeffrey Epstein illegally exploit women and girls, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday. The suit says the bank helped conceal Epstein's suspicious activities.https://t.co/0eT8QXZXsf
— The New York Times (@nytimes) December 29, 2022
Epstein was found dead in his New York City jail cell in 2019. A medical examiner ruled that he died by suicide.
“When he died, Epstein was awaiting trial on federal charges accusing him of operating a sex trafficking ring from 2002 to 2005 at his Manhattan mansion and his Palm Beach estate, and allegedly paying girls as young as 14 for sex,” the outlet continued.
Meanwhile, his muse, Ghislaine Maxwell, is currently serving up to 20 years in prison for her role in securing underaged girls for Epstein and his guests. “The guideline range applicable is 188 to 235 months imprisonment,” U.S. Circuit Judge Alison Nathan said in June during sentencing.
Maxwell’s behavior was “heinous and predatory,” Nathan noted, noting that she worked with Epstein to select “young victims who were vulnerable.”
“The damage done to these young girls was incalculable,” Nathan added, noting not only their abuse at the hands of Epstein and Maxwell but also by having to testify about it and endure “zealous cross-examination.”
Before the sentence was read, Nathan overruled a series of objections that Maxwell’s lawyers had over the pre-sentence report.
“Prosecutors said Epstein, who killed himself in 2019 while awaiting trial, sexually abused children hundreds of times over more than a decade, and couldn’t have done so without the help of Maxwell, his longtime companion, and one-time girlfriend,” the Associated Press reported.
“Maxwell’s conduct was shockingly predatory. She was a calculating, sophisticated, and dangerous criminal who preyed on vulnerable young girls and groomed them for sexual abuse,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.
