Deutsche Bank to pay $75 mn in Epstein victim settlement: report

Deutsche Bank will pay $75 million to settle litigation alleging the German lender financially benefited from supporting Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking scheme, according to a report Wednesday.

The settlement concerns an unnamed defendant who launched a proposed class-action suit in November 2022, alleging Deutsche Bank did business with Epstein while knowing he used funds in the account to support sex-trafficking activity, the Wall Street Journal said Wednesday.

The Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, said Deutsche Bank did not admit wrongdoing.

A Deutsche Bank spokesperson declined comment.

Deutsche Bank benefited financially by supporting Epstein's "sex trafficking organization to successfully rape, sexually assault and coercively sex traffic Plaintiff Jane Doe 1 and the numerous other members of the Class," said the original complaint, which was filed in US court in New York.

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Epstein, an American financier who killed himself in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex crimes, began banking with Deutsche Bank in 2013 after JPMorgan Chase closed his accounts, the Journal reported.

An unidentified woman -- apparently the same as in the Deutsche case -- and the US Virgin Islands brought separate suits against JPMorgan late last year, accusing the bank of facilitating Epstein's crimes by ignoring warnings and continuing to keep him as a client until 2013.

According to court documents, subpoenas in those cases have targeted multiple well-known people whom Epstein possibly referred to JPMorgan as clients, including Elon Musk and Google co-founder Larry Page.

The bank has denied the allegations, and has filed its own suit against a former executive for his ties to Epstein.

Deutsche Bank in July 2020 agreed to pay $150 million to settle allegations brought by the New York Department of Financial Services for compliance failures connected to the bank's work for Epstein.

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"We acknowledge our error of onboarding Epstein in 2013 and the weaknesses in our processes, and have learnt from our mistakes and shortcomings," Deutsche Bank said in July 2020.

Epstein was convicted in Florida in 2008 of paying young girls for massages, but served just 13 months in jail under a secret plea deal.

Later facing charges of trafficking underage girls for sex, he killed himself in a New York jail in August 2019.

Source: AFP