NEW YORK, Aug 27 (Reuters) – A federal judge said on Thursday he would grant final approval to Bank of America’s $72.5 million class-action settlement with women who accused the second-largest U.S. bank of facilitating their sexual abuse by the late financier Jeffrey Epstein.
• U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff said in Manhattan at a hearing on Thursday that the settlement would provide many victims with “substantial” compensation and “justice, even if partial.” He rejected an argument by three accusers that the deal was overbroad because it required them to give up related claims against the bank and other potential defendants without compensation.
• He also rejected the accusers’ argument that the settlement should not cover claims that were materially different from those of the lead plaintiff, known by the pseudonym Jane Doe.
• Doe, a Florida resident, said she was living in Russia when she met Epstein, and that he sexually abused her at least 100 times between 2011 and 2019. She said Epstein paid her repeatedly to further his sex trafficking, and that his money was wired repeatedly into and out of her Bank of America accounts.
• The lawsuit is one of several accusing Epstein’s banks of ignoring suspicious financial transactions related to Epstein, for concern they might lose his business.
• Many of these transactions occurred after Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to a Florida state prostitution charge and became a registered sex offender.
• Doe’s lawyers reached settlements of $290 million with JPMorgan Chase and $75 million with Deutsche Bank in 2023 on behalf of Epstein’s accusers.
• In agreeing to settle in March, Bank of America said it did not facilitate sex trafficking crimes.
• Epstein died in a Manhattan jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. New York City’s medical examiner ruled the death a suicide.
(Reporting by Jack Queen and Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Rod Nickel)
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