Related Articles
The US Virgin Islands is seeking $190 million in penalties from JPMorgan Chase for the bank’s failure to report disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’ssex-trafficking operation, according to a court filing on Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported.
In the filing, the Virgin Islands’ attorney general’s office said it wants JPMorgan Chase to place new policies to detect and preventhuman trafficking.
“I am gratified that the victims have received some measure of compensation from the bank, but more needs to be done to hold JPMorgan Chase accountable and to ensure this does not happen to another generation of women and girls,” said U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General Ariel Smith, who also noted that the government has plans to dedicate funds from any judgement to improving local law enforcement and services for victims of human trafficking.
The bank denied the charges and argued that the claims by the Virgin Islands government were “not well founded and are being challenged by JPM in court.”
Patricia Wexler, a JPMorgan spokeswoman, told the New York Times, “This document does not reflect the nature of settlement conversations.”
In June, the bank agreed to pay $290 million in a settlement with the victims of Epstein, whoseAugust 2019 deathwas ruled a suicide. Last year, Epstein’s estate agreed to pay the U.S. Virgin Islands more than $105 million in cash to settle asimilar lawsuitalleging he used the territory as a base for trafficking of young women and children to his secluded private island.
