The United States Virgin Islands is suing J.P. Morgan Bank over what it contends was its role as a beneficiary of Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking ring, the New York Times reported Wednesday.
U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General Denise George filed the suit Tuesday in federal court in Manhattan claiming the bank profited from its financial arrangement with Epstein, who committed suicide in federal custody in 2019 while awaiting trial on the sex trafficking charges.
"J.P. Morgan knowingly, negligently, and unlawfully provided and pulled the levers through which recruiters and victims were paid and was indispensable to the operation and concealment of the Epstein trafficking enterprise," the Times reported from the lawsuit. "J.P. Morgan facilitated and concealed wire and cash transactions that raised suspicion of — and were in fact part of — a criminal enterprise whose currency was the sexual servitude of dozens of women and girls in and beyond the Virgin Islands."
While Epstein did not live to go to trial, his top aide, Ghislaine Maxwell, was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison for her part in recruiting and providing underage girls for sex with a still unknown list of rich and powerful clients at several locations throughout the world, including Epstein's estate on Little St. James Island, which he owned in the territory, according to the report.
The suit alleges the bank continued to offer services to Epstein despite a previous sex abuse conviction in 2008 although bank employees raised concerns about risks to the institution for continuing its business relationship with him.
The territory sued Epstein's estate as well in 2020, eventually reaching a settlement of $105 million, including $80 million to the territory for tax benefits the territory extended to Epstein, the report said.
The new suit wants the bank to turn over the illegal profits from the enterprise.
The bank declined the Times' request for comment.
In addition to the territory, Epstein's accusers are also suing the bank, the New York Post reported in November.
Two of the women who accused Epstein claim that J.P. Morgan and the German Deutsche Bank filed the suits as "Jane Does" and are seeking class action status for an undisclosed amount of money for the banks role in enabling the operation, the report said.
"[Deutsche Bank] knowingly participated in the Epstein sex-trafficking venture by (among other things) providing the financial underpinnings for Epstein to have ready and reliable access to resources — including cash — to recruit, lure, coerce, and entice young women and girls to be sexually abused and to cause them to engage in commercial sex acts and other degradations," the Post reported that lawsuit saying. "When considering whether to participate in the sex-trafficking venture, and before on-boarding Epstein, Deutsche Bank estimated that it would earn between $2,000,000 to $4,000,000 annually by funding the sex-trafficking venture and handling the accounts of Epstein-related entities."
Deutsche Bank denied the allegations in a statement to the Post at the time.
"We believe this claim lacks merit and will present our arguments in court," a Deutsche Bank spokesman told The Post.
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