(NEW YORK) — A federal judge in New York will consider granting final approval Thursday to Bank of America’s $72 million settlement with women who accused the bank of helping Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse them.
The women, suing collectively under the pseudonym Jane Doe, accused Bank of America of ignoring suspicious transactions by Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial.
Bank America agreed to settle the lawsuit in March while still insisting it did not facilitate Epstein’s sex trafficking crimes.
Among the transactions the plaintiffs alleged were suspicious were payments to Epstein by Leon Black, who stepped down as chief executive of Apollo Global Management after an independent review commissioned by the company found he paid Epstein $158 million for estate planning.
Black previously said that his relationship with Epstein, which he said involved “professional services” for estate planning, tax and philanthropic advice, had been “a horrible mistake.” He has denied involvement or knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and said any suggestion of his involvement in “Epstein’s reprehensible conduct is categorically untrue.”
The same Jane Doe plaintiffs reached similar settlements with JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank, but their claim against Bank of New York Mellon was dismissed. The court in the BNY Mellon case concluded that the plaintiffs’ complaint had failed to adequately allege that the bank had civil liability under the Trafficking Victims’ Protection Act or that the bank had obstructed investigations of Epstein.
Bank of America had previously sought dismissal of the case, contending that the lawsuit was an attempt to “radically expand liability for banks” for providing “routine services to customers who at the time had no known connection to Epstein’s sex trafficking.”
The bank denies “each and all of the claims and contentions” in the lawsuit, according to court documents.
“While we stand by our prior statements made in the filings in this case, including that Bank of America did not facilitate sex trafficking crimes, this resolution allows us to put this matter behind us and provides further closure for the plaintiffs,” a Bank of America spokesperson told ABC News.
An attorney for the accusers previously called the proposed settlement “one more step on the road to much-deserved justice.”
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