The proposed $290 million settlement between JPMorgan Chase and sexual assault victim Jeffrey Epstein carries no minimum or maximum payments for any individual, leaving the decision to a claims administrator appointed to oversee the process, according to plans filed in federal court on Thursday.
If approved by a federal judge, the proposed deal with JPMorgan would settle a class action lawsuit filed in November in Manhattan federal court against the nation's largest bank on behalf of a woman who claims to have been sexually assaulted by Mr. Epstein as a teenager or young. woman. The decision to leave the size of each payment to the administrator will give that person significant power over the settlement fund, covering Mr. Epstein from 1998 to 2019.
More than 200 women may be eligible to apply for a settlement fund, judging by the number of claims that have been filed with a separate victim restitution fund set up by Mr. Epstein. The estate created a restitution fund shortly after Mr Epstein committed suicide in August 2019 while awaiting trial in a Manhattan prison on sex trafficking charges.
The proposed settlement with JPMorgan does not prohibit any women who receive payments from estate restitution funds from seeking additional relief under the agreement with JPMorgan, according to court filings. The bank had been Mr Epstein's principal financial institution for approximately 15 years before ending the relationship in 2013.
Suing the major Wall Street firms with which Mr Epstein did business has proven to be a successful strategy for obtaining additional financial assistance for Mr Epstein's victims. The litigation strategy also generates large costs for attorneys filing lawsuits.
The same group of lawyers that sued JPMorgan also recently negotiated a tentative $75 million settlement with Deutsche Bank, which is Mr. Epstein after JPMorgan dropped him. The proposed agreement with Deutsche specifically says that eligible victims who have been abused by Mr. Epstein from 2013 to 2019 is eligible for $75,000 to $5 million in restitution.
The lack of a range of awards for victims in the JPMorgan deal is the most significant difference between the two proposed settlements.
In both cases, victims' attorneys led by David Boies and Brad Edwards are seeking legal fees of up to 30 percent of the settlement funds. Lawyers say the fee is justified by the more than two dozen depositions taken in preparation for lawsuits and dozens of witness interviews, according to court filings in both cases.
In the proposed settlement, JPMorgan denied supporting Mr. Epstein in any way. Banks said, on several occasions, that Mr Epstein's activities were “abominable” and “looking back, any association with him was a mistake.”
JPMorgan continued to do business with Mr Epstein for five years after he pleaded guilty in 2008 in Florida to soliciting the prostitution of a teenage girl.
Lawyers for the bank and the victim finalized their respective settlements with the help of a mediator, according to court filings.
Judge Jed Rakoff of the Federal District Court in Manhattan, which is overseeing the lawsuits against the two banks, still has to approve the request for fees. Judges last week gave preliminary approval to a settlement agreement between the victim and Deutsche.
Lawyers for the victims and JPMorgan have asked Judge Rakoff to approve Simone K. Lelchuk as claim administrator for settlement. Ms. Lelchuk, a lawyer with mediation skills, was approved to oversee the process of distributing funds from the Deutsche settlement. He also oversaw the process of assessing settlement claims by victims of disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein. The court filing said the fund's administrator, when considering a victim's claim, should take into account the extent of the alleged harm, the duration of the abuse, and the victim's willingness to cooperate with law enforcement.
The agreement with JPMorgan will also require administrators to consider any award victims may receive from the Deutsche settlement fund. But that doesn't prevent the victim from receiving recovery from both bank settlements, if the abuses overlap over the years the two institutions have owned Mr. Epstein as a customer.
Any money left at the end of the process will be donated to a charitable organization approved by the victim's attorney and JPMorgan.
The combined settlements with the two banks more than doubled the roughly $150 million in restitutions already paid by Mr. Epstein to more than 125 victims.
JPMorgan's settlement with the victim Mr. Epstein will not end all litigation.
The bank is seeking restitution from James E. Staley, a former JPMorgan top executive who has close ties to Mr Epstein and has lobbied to retain him as a customer. JPMorgan is also being sued by the government of the US Virgin Islands where Mr. Epstein maintained a private island residence and ran the business for nearly two decades. The Virgin Islands lawsuit was led by attorneys from Motley Rice, a law firm that owns a guarantor agreement with US territories.