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May 18, 2023 at 03:15 PM
Deutsche Bank has agreed to a $75 million settlement to resolve a proposed class action lawsuit that accused the bank of facilitating sex trafficking by the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, plaintiffs’ attorney David Boies of Boies Schiller Flexner confirmed early Thursday.
The settlement is set to go before U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the Southern District of New York for approval. The agreement includes no admission of wrongdoing by Deutsche Bank, a person familiar with the matter said.
Boies and Edwards Pottinger partner Bradley Edwards filed the lawsuit in November 2022 on behalf of a Jane Doe plaintiff representing a proposed class of women sexually trafficked by Epstein between 2013 and 2018. Epstein was found dead in Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Center in August 2019.
The lawsuit accused Deutsche Bank of “participating in and financially benefiting from participating in Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking by providing the requisite financial support for the continued operation of Epstein’s international sex trafficking organization.”
David Boies of Boies, Schiller and Flexner. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM
Rakoff partially granted a motion to dismiss from Deutsche Bank’s attorneys at Ropes & Gray, who argued that the claims in the suit were legally deficient and that the suit “does not come close to adequately alleging that Deutsche Bank, which provided routine banking services to Epstein between 2013 and 2018, was part of Epstein’s criminal sex trafficking ring.”
Rakoff allowed the plaintiffs to move ahead with other aspects of their complaint, including a claim that the bank knowingly benefited from participating in a sex-trafficking venture and obstructed enforcement of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.
