Bank of America and Bank of New York Mellon (BNY) face two lawsuits filed this Wednesday in federal court for not reporting suspicious activities about the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, accused of trafficking and sexual abuse of minors, until after his death.
These are two class-action lawsuits that were filed this Wednesday, reports The Wall Street Journal, on behalf of an unknown woman and others who accused Epstein of abuse and who allege that the magnate’s crimes would not have been possible without the “special treatment” that the banks provided to him and his accomplices.
The lawsuits seek unspecified damages.
The woman, referred to in court documents as Jane Doe, claimed to have been abused by Epstein between 2011 and 2019, and is represented by law firms Boies Schiller and Edwards Henderson, who filed the lawsuit and who in 2023 reached settlements of $75 million and $290 million with Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan over her alleged financial ties to Epstein.
The plaintiff alleges that she opened an account at Bank of America in May 2013 at the direction of Epstein’s accountant, who transferred approximately $14,000 to that account.
Epstein and the accountant continued to use accounts in the woman’s name at that bank for years, according to the lawsuit.
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Meanwhile, the lawsuit against BNY alleges that, since at least 2006, the bank had a relationship with MC2, a modeling agency created by Epstein and agent Jean-Luc Brunel. According to the lawyers, funds from the bank were used to facilitate Epstein’s sex trafficking operations.
Brunel, who was arrested in 2020 on sex trafficking charges, died in prison in 2022.
For his part, lawyer Brad Edwards pointed out today that the banks responsible for allowing Epstein’s trafficking should have contacted “during the previous litigation to do the right thing for these victims,” the newspaper reported.
“It is sad that only through lawsuits and Congress can we bring justice to this glaring problem,” he added.
Epstein’s estate recently delivered to Congress a list of more than 20 banks that had accounts of the businessman and entities related to him, according to WSJ, which recalls that banks are required to monitor and report suspicious activities to avoid facilitating money laundering and other criminal activities.
Epstein was convicted in 2008 of prostitution of minors and died in 2019 before facing a pending trial on new federal charges of sex trafficking of minors.
With information from EFE.
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