JPMorgan agrees to settle Jeffrey Epstein victim class action lawsuit
JPMorgan has yet to announce details of the deal with Epstein's accuser
JPMorgan Chase has reached an agreement to settle a lawsuit from victims of Jeffrey Epstein, the bank announced Monday.
The financial institution has yet to release details regarding the "agreement in principle," but it will shell out $290 million in payments to the victims, according a Reuters report. JPMorgan had been attempting to fend off the class action lawsuit for months.
"Settlement is in the best interests of all parties, especially the survivors who were the victims of Epstein’s terrible abuse," the bank and lawyers for the victims wrote in a joint statement.
While the statement did not reveal a settlement amount publicly, Reuters cited a "person familiar" with the agreement who said the bank would pay roughly $290 million. The payment will go out to roughly 100 women who were victims of Epstein's.
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell attend de Grisogono Sponsors The 2005 Wall Street Concert Series Benefitting Wall Street Rising, with a Performance by Rod Stewart at Cipriani Wall Street on March 15, 2005 in New York City. ((Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images) / Getty Images)
"We all now understand that Epstein’s behavior was monstrous, and we believe this settlement is in the best interest of all parties, especially the survivors, who suffered unimaginable abuse at the hands of this man," JP Morgan wrote in a statement.
"Any association with him was a mistake and we regret it. We would never have continued to do business with himx if we believed he was using our bank in any way to help commit heinous crimes," the bank added.
The agreement comes weeks after JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon sat for a deposition with lawyers for the victims. The lawsuit alleged the bank had repeatedly ignored warnings that Epstein has involved in the sex trafficking of young women and girls.
JPMORGAN CHASE ACCUSED OF TURNING ‘BLIND EYE’ TO EPSTEIN SEX CRIMES: LAWSUIT
Dimon testified that he played no part in handling Epstein's accounts with the bank.
"Our CEO reaffirmed after his deposition that, as he has previously said, that he never met with him, never emailed him, does not recall ever discussing his accounts internally, and was not involved in any decisions about his account," JP Morgan said in a statement at the time. "There are millions and millions of emails and other documents that have been produced in this case and not one comes close to even suggesting that he had any role in decisions about Epstein’s accounts.
Jamie Dimon, chairman and chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase, sat for a deposition interview regarding a lawsuit against the bank from victims of Jeffrey Epstein. (Marco Bello/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Lawyers for Epstein's victims filed a request to interview Dimon a second time last week. They claimed that the bank had dragged its feet in producing further documents that would have changed their initial questioning of Dimon.
In a letter to Judge Jed Rakoff, an attorney for the Epstein victim wrote that JPMorgan's "untimely" and "inexplicably slow" delivery of documents was a strategic move.
"By way of background, in May this Court admonished JPMC for producing documents at an inexplicably slow rate," the lawyer, Sigrid McCawley, wrote Friday.
JPMorgan Chase has reached a settlement agreement "in principle" with the victims of Jeffrey Epstein, who sued the bank for ignoring warning signs of his trafficking. (DON EMMERT/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
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The new settlement agreement, however, would render the matter of a second interview moot.
Fox News' Michael Ruiz and Chrystopher Mulligan contributed to this report.