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December 29, 2022 at 10:09 AM
The U.S. Virgin Islands is suing JPMorgan Chase & Co. for “turning a blind eye” to former client Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking on his private island there.
USVI Attorney General Denise George said her suit filed Tuesday in Manhattan federal court was part of an “ongoing effort” to hold accountable those who facilitated Epstein’s activities. Epstein brought many of his victims to his villa on Little St. James, the private island he owned.
“Human trafficking was the principal business of the accounts Epstein maintained at JPMorgan,” the USVI complaint states.
JPMorgan declined to comment.
According to the suit, JPMorgan concealed “wire and cash transactions that raised suspicion of a criminal enterprise whose currency was the sexual servitude” of women and girls in the Virgin Islands.
George also claims JPMorgan’s willingness to do business with Epstein unfairly enriched it at the expense of other banks.
Class Actions
The suit is seeking unspecified damages for violating sex-trafficking, bank-secrecy and consumer laws.
George’s suit makes similar claims to proposed class actions filed last month by Epstein victims against JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank AG. A JPMorgan spokesman declined to comment on that suit, while a Deutsche Bank spokeswoman said the case “lacks merit.”
