Jeffrey Epstein at the “Batman Forever” premiere in 1995.
Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
A settlement from Deutsche Bank will give up to $5 million each to Jeffrey Epstein’s victims.
Deutsche agreed to pay $75 million to settle the class action lawsuit.
A judge still needs to agree to the settlement terms.
Victims of Jeffrey Epstein will be able to get up to $5 million from a settlement between Deutsche Bank and a class-action group of the now-dead pedophile’s accusers, according to new court documents.
The bank settled the lawsuit in May, agreeing to pay $75 million to satisfy claims from an Epstein accuser who alleged that Deutsche Bank enabled Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation by failing to properly scrutinize his accounts.
Friday’s court filings — if approved by the judge overseeing the case — outline how the funds would be distributed to Epstein’s victims.
Epstein died in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. His vast estate, valued at $630 million, formed the basis for a compensation program that doled out $125 million to victims. In addition to the 136 victims who took money from the fund, other accusers have received settlements from separate lawsuits filed against Epstein’s estate.
Attorneys for some of Epstein’s accusers believed the earlier compensation program wasn’t enough.
“Given that the estate at one point was valued at $634 million, this seems, in my opinion, to be a very small amount paid to victims for the harm that they suffered,” Gloria Allred, who represents 20 of his accusers, previously told Insider. “It’s my opinion that victims should have been compensated with a much larger share of Epstein’s estate and that the amount awarded to many of them was insufficient and undervalued the sexual abuse that they suffered.”
The Deutsche Bank settlement allows Epstein’s victims to file claims with a new compensation program. Those claims will be reviewed by a group of three judges, who will decide whether to issue between $75,000 and $5 million to victims.
The anonymous “Jane Doe” who brought the class-action lawsuit against Deutsche Bank is represented by the attorneys David Boies and Brad Edwards, who represent dozens of Epstein accusers and helped shape his estate’s compensation program. Their law firms can get up to 30% of the Deutsche Bank settlement funds, according to the settlement documents.
Representatives for Deutsche Bank and the “Jane Doe” plaintiff didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Earlier this week, JP Morgan Chase agreed to pay $290 million to settle a separate class action lawsuit from “Jane Doe” alleging the bank facilitated Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation. The full settlement terms aren’t yet available.
Yet another lawsuit against JP Morgan, brought by the attorney general of the US Virgin Islands — where Epstein owned two private islands — is still moving forward.
The Virgin Islands lawsuit alleges JP Morgan “pulled the levers” of Epstein’s trafficking by turning a blind eye to red flags in his bank accounts because of the business he brought to the bank through his connections with other powerful people.
JP Morgan has denied the claims and has alleged that the US Virgin Islands government had its own problematic entanglements with Epstein. In court documents Thursday, the bank brought attention to Cecile de Jongh, the territory’s former first lady, who worked for Epstein. She consulted him on changes to a sex offender registration law and helped obtain visas for some of his victims, the filings allege.