NEW YORK — The U.S. Virgin Islands is seeking at least $190 million in damages from JPMorgan Chase in a lawsuit alleging the bank benefited financially from disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking enterprise as well as neglected to report suspicious financial activity.
In a filing in federal court in Manhattan, the territory on Friday demanded that JPMorgan Chase shell out $150 million in civil penalties and $40 million in fees and revenues that Epstein generated for the bank while he was a client there.
The Virgin Islands government further requested the bank implement an independent compliance consultant and safeguards to prevent human trafficking in the future, as well as separate its business and compliance functions.
“Financial penalties, as well as conduct changes, are important to make sure that JPMorgan Chase knows the cost of putting its own profits ahead of public safety,” U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General Ariel Smith said in a statement to Reuters.
In response, a JPMorgan Chase spokesperson said, “This document does not reflect the nature of settlement conversations. As for the USVI’s misdirected damages theories, they are not well founded and are being challenged by JPM in court.”
JPMorgan Chase has denied liability, but has previously said that any association with Epstein was a mistake it has come to regret. The bank provided the prolific abuser with services from 1998 to 2013.
The Virgin Islands government has argued JPMorgan Chase should be held responsible for enabling Epstein to pay his victims as well as for ignoring internal warnings and other red flags because he was a valuable enough client.
Epstein died by suicide in 2019 at a New York City correctional center, where he was being held on federal sex-trafficking charges. He was found dead in his jail cell before he could face trial for sexually abusing underage girls.
In June, JPMorgan Chase agreed to pay $290 million to settle a similar class-action lawsuit from Epstein’s alleged sexual abuse victims.
