JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N) agreed to pay about $290 million to settle a class action lawsuit by Jeffrey Epstein's victims, resolving a large part of litigation over the bank's relationship with the disgraced financier.
Monday's settlement follows months of embarrassing disclosures that JPMorgan ignored internal warnings and overlooked red flags about Epstein because he had been a valuable client.
Epstein was a JPMorgan client from 1998 to 2013 and was kept on even after being arrested in 2006 on prostitution-related charges and pleading guilty two years later.
Monday's accord would resolve claims against the largest U.S. bank by potentially more than 100 victims, led by a former ballet dancer known as Jane Doe 1, who said Epstein abused them when they were young women and teenage girls.
Epstein killed himself at age 66 in a Manhattan jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
"It could be that the bank doesn't want this to stay in the press," said Carliss Chatman, a professor at Washington and Lee University School of Law in Virginia. "At a time Americans are questioning the banking system, associating Chase with human trafficking is not good for business."
Davia Temin, chief executive of crisis management firm Temin and Co, said settling rather than fighting to the end sends "the right message across Wall Street."
The settlement of the civil case requires approval by U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan.
