Jeffrey Epstein: $314.1 million deal between JP Morgan and sex victims gets preliminary approval

Jeffrey Epstein, 2017. Photo / New York State Sex Offender Registry

A federal judge in New York City gave preliminary approval Monday to a NZ$314.1 million (US$290m) deal that JPMorgan Chase reached with sex victims of financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Judge Jed S. Rakoff praised lawyers on both sides for working out the deal announced earlier this month.

He called it a “really fine settlement”.

In lawsuits, lawyers for victims said JPMorgan gave Epstein loans and let him withdraw large sums of cash from 1998 through August 2013.

The bank continued to count Epstein as a client even after he was arrested and pleaded guilty in 2008 to sex crimes in Florida.

The bank has said it now regrets any interaction the bank had with Epstein while he was a client.

Lawsuits are still pending between the US Virgin Islands and JPMorgan Chase, and the bank is still pursuing its lawsuit against a JPMorgan former executive.

Epstein was 66 when he apparently took his life in a federal jail in Manhattan in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges that were brought against him a month earlier.

The settlement awaits final approval.