Epstein Victims Say Banks Chose Profits Over Following Law

Deutsche Bank AG and JPMorgan Chase & Co. chose to profit from Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking venture rather than follow the law, victims of the pedophile told a judge, urging him not to throw out their lawsuit seeking damages from the banks.

Lawyers for the banks asked the judge in December to dismiss the complaints, saying the victims’ claims didn’t “come close to adequately alleging” that the banks were part of the financier’s sexual-abuse ring.

In a court filing Tuesday, the victims, who are led by an anonymous Jane Doe 1, said Deutsche Bank’s alleged participation in Epstein’s sex trafficking was “intentional and outrageous,” with bank executives routinely overruling compliance staff so the wealth-management business could start or continue relationships with high-risk, ultra-rich clients.

JPMorgan has denied allegations it “pulled the levers” that allowed Epstein to finance the abuse and trafficking of young woman while he was a client of the bank from the late 1990s to 2013. He was charged with sex trafficking in 2019 and found dead in his prison cell weeks later, in what was ruled a suicide.

‘Essential’ to Scheme

Deutsche Bank, which provided banking services to Epstein from 2013 to 2018, estimated it would earn $2 million to $4 million annually from serving as his banker, according to the filing.

“The reality is that Deutsche Bank did not only participate in the trafficking — it was essential to Epstein’s scheme and is one of the primary reasons he was able to continue harming young girls all over the world for decades,” the victims’ lawyers wrote.

They made similar claims in a separate filing against JPMorgan.

“Epstein offered his business, and the many millions it generated, exclusively to JPMC because JPMC was willing to knowingly aid Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation and to help conceal it,” they wrote. “JPMC knew that if it stopped aiding and concealing the operation, it would lose Epstein’s accounts and the substantial financial benefits resulting from handling those accounts.”

Epstein and Staley

Epstein’s relationship with Jes Staley, the former head of JPMorgan’s private bank, is at the core of the victims’ suit. Jane Doe alleges Staley, who became chief executive officer of Barclays Plc after leaving JPMorgan, “was well aware that Epstein was running a sex-trafficking venture.” He visited Epstein’s home and “personally observed Epstein sexually grab young women in front of him,” lawyers for Jane Doe wrote in a filing on Tuesday.

Staley, who isn’t named as a defendant in the suit, has denied any involvement in the trafficking operation.

Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, was convicted of similar charges in December 2021. During her trial, a JPMorgan banker testified that Epstein wired her $31 million, money prosecutors characterized as Maxwell’s payment for procuring young girls for the financier.

The cases are Jane Doe 1 v. Deutsche Bank, 22-cv-10018, and Jane Doe 1 v. JPMorgan Chase & Co., 22-cv-10019, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

Related: Banks Seek to Quash Women’s Lawsuits in Jeffrey Epstein Case

Photo: The headquarters of Deutsche Bank AG reflected in the windows of an office building in the financial district of Frankfurt, Germany. Photographer: Alex Kraus/Bloomberg