CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

JPMorgan Chase sued for allegedly benefiting from Jeffrey Epstein


"Human trafficking was the principal business of the accounts Epstein maintained at JPMorgan," the filing stated.

By Madeleine Hubbard
Updated: December 29, 2022 

The U.S. Virgin Islands attorney general filed a lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase for allegedly receiving financial benefits from Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking activities and failing to report suspicious banking activity.

"Over more than a decade, JPMorgan clearly knew it was not complying with federal regulations in regard to Epstein-related accounts as evidenced by its too-little too-late efforts after Epstein was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges and shortly after his death, when JPMorgan belatedly complied with federal law," U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General Denise George said in a complaint, CNN reported Thursday.

"Human trafficking was the principal business of the accounts Epstein maintained at JPMorgan," the filing stated.

JPMorgan Chase is being accused in the lawsuit of failing to make filings that could have notified government officials about Epstein's alleged trafficking of minors through the U.S. Virgin Islands, where he owned private islands.

The attorney general also argued that the Wall Street bank should have paid closer attention to Epstein after he pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting prostitution with a minor.

Epstein died in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019.

A JPMorgan Chase spokesperson told CNN that it did not have a comment on the lawsuit Wednesday evening.

Two anonymous women who accused Epstein of abuse filed lawsuits last month against JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank, claiming the financial institutions enabled and benefited from alleged trafficking.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Virgin Islands attorney general settled with Epstein's estate for more than $105 million and the estate agreed to sell Epstein's two islands there and cease business operations.